My Best Friends' Wedding
by JinnySkeans
Summary: To love, honor, and cherish, in good times and bad, in sickness and in health, for as long as you both shall tolerate each other's company. A stubborn maid of honor, a stubborn best man, and the bride and groom who will stop at nothing to put them back together again. AU
1. Wedding Bells

Hinata held the phone in her hands, lavender eyes full of determination. But each time she went to dial the number, nerves overtook her resolution, and she put it down again on the desk, only to pick it up again a few moments later. On and on it went, a strange routine, but was she wrong to second guess herself?

It wasn't like she hadn't spoken to Sakura recently. But this wouldn't be a typical conversation.

_She's the one girl in the world you trust more than anyone else,_ she thought fiercely. _You're being ridiculous. She would understand, right? We're her friends, too._

The diamond ring sparkling on her fourth finger caught the light and distracted her for a moment. Her worried brow relaxed as she smiled at the shiny band, twisting it back and forth out of habit.

It wasn't too much to ask for, was it?

A wedding as perfect as the ring on her finger.

She wasn't a terribly fussy girl by nature, which was odd, considering the prim and proper household she'd been raised in. She was relatively down-to-earth, much like the rest of her friends, with the possible exception of Ino; she made it a point of putting others' needs before her own whenever she could, and being satisfied with whatever good things came her way.

But this was her wedding day. And even if it was horrible of her, Hinata Hyuuga wanted everything to be perfect on her wedding day. She wanted everything to go _right._

And it wouldn't feel right unless _everybody_ was there.

"Something wrong, Hinata?"

She jerked out of her reverie, startled by the arrival of her boyfriend. Or rather, fiancee; she really had to get used to calling him that. Naruto sat down on the sofa next to her, blue eyes shining with concern. "You looked really out of it. Everything all right?"

"Yeah," Hinata replied, smiling shyly. Sometimes she had to remind herself that this was real, this was permanent; all of her childhood dreams of spending her life with Naruto Uzumaki were coming true. "I was just thinking about the w-wedding."

"I was thinkin' about it, too," Naruto admitted, and she was momentarily taken aback by the seriousness in his eyes. It worried her, and she turned to face him properly. "And there's something I needed to run past you, before I went ahead and did it on my own, but I think it's really important."

"What are you t-talking about?"

Naruto squared his jaw, then blurted out, "Sakura's got to be there."

Hinata wasn't as surprised as she felt she should have been. Prior to her abrupt departure from Konoha two years prior, Sakura was one of their dearest friends. She'd since relocated to Suna and maintained contact with most of their old group, with one notable exception; now in her first year of medical school, she was a very successful student interning with one of the best doctors in the country. They hadn't seen her since she left like a thief in the night one balmy summer night. Ino, her best friend, visited her occasionally, but whenever she was pressed for details, she never offered much, perhaps the only time in her life she kept her mouth shut. Hinata guessed it to be Sakura's orders.

Her absence was greatly felt, though. They all missed her terribly, and occasional phone calls, random texts, and even handwritten letters because Sakura was old-fashioned simply weren't enough. Hinata knew it wouldn't feel right on her wedding day if Sakura wasn't there.

"I w-want her to be my m-maid of honor," Hinata admitted to her fiancee. "But…Naruto I d-don't think she'll w-want to come b-b-back here."

"She's got to!" Naruto said fiercely. "She's one of our best friends and it's our wedding, Hinata! She's got to come back for that!"

"But…you know how th-things ended. You know. With S-Sasuke."

Naruto sighed in exasperation, throwing himself back against the couch cushions with his arms folded. "No one really knows how it ended between them," he muttered. "She just left, and he won't talk about it."

"He's your b-best man, Naruto. D-Don't you think it w-would cause problems? He's s-so sensitive about S-Sakura."

"Which is exactly why we gotta bring her home!" Naruto announced. "Hinata don't you see? This is our chance to bring 'em back together!"

That sounded like a very, very bad idea to Hinata. No one was entirely sure what had caused the immediate, hideous breakup between Sakura and Sasuke two years ago. After a year and a half of dating, things had ended without either one of them offering an explanation. To Hinata's knowledge, they hadn't spoken since then. Sasuke was the one friend from Konoha whom Sakura never attempted to contact after moving to Suna. Getting involved in their affairs seemed incredibly stupid.

Even if she'd always rooted for Sasuke and Sakura to end up together, it had to happen on its own, didn't it?

"Sakura's the only girl Sasuke ever looked twice at," Naruto said firmly. "And she's been in love with him since forever. They were the second best couple in the world after us, until they broke up and they still won't talk about it! It's ridiculous! We all know they're made for each other, but they're both too stubborn to acknowledge it so we've gotta tweak the circumstances!"

"What?"

"Tweak the circumstances, babe! Sakura's bullheaded but she wouldn't miss our wedding for anything. Not even Sasuke. And Sasuke's got no choice about it. He's my best man and that's final."

Hinata sensed he must have had that exact same conversation with Sasuke before.

"Don't you think they're supposed to be together?" he asked.

Hinata sighed and looked out the window. "Of course I d-do," she said quietly. "But are you sure th-this is a good idea?"

So many things could go wrong. Sakura returning would be amazing, since they all missed her. But forcing her to confront the demons of her past seemed callous. The last thing Hinata wanted to do would be to give Sakura one more reason to never come back to Konoha ever again.

But Naruto was right. Beyond her selfish desire to have all her friends together on her perfect day, Hinata knew that if anyone deserved a second chance at love, it was her maid of honor and Naruto's best man.

"So you think I should c-call her?" Hinata asked.

"Hell yeah! We should've told her last week anyway, when I proposed to you!"

So Hinata punched in the numbers she'd long since memorized, hoping that good intentions would not pave a road to hell this time.

* * *

Sakura stood in front of the open fridge, allowing the cold air to seep out and soothe her overheated muscles. Sweat turned cold on her forehead, and as she fanned herself with her hand, she scolded herself for never, ever learning her lesson about running in the sweltering Suna heat.

_You'd think after nearly dying of heatstroke four times this month, I'd actually get it,_ she thought, panting. _Just splurge and get the goddamn gym membership! Ten dollars a month is worth it to get out of this fucking sun._

Sakura couldn't handle being idle for too long, so she kept herself busy almost every minute of the day. She'd always been like that; a social butterfly, popular and involved in everything, hard working in every facet of her life. She had a few hours' downtime before her night shift at the nursing home she worked at and after a fairly intense class schedule in the morning, so she decided to put it to good use and get a run in.

And even though she'd now lived in Suna for two years, she still constantly underestimated the strength of the sun and heat until she was drenched in sweat four blocks from her apartment.

The fridge light flickered, then died. Sakura sighed. One more thing to take care of. Annoyed, she grabbed a bottle of water from one of the poorly-stocked shelves and shut the door, heading to her living room to decompress.

The beaten-up couch she'd found at a secondhand store dipped under her weight. She lifted her heavy ponytail off her neck and pressed the water bottle to her skin, hissing a little at the cold before sighing in relief. The ancient overworked fan in the window blew in air that was just as hot as it was outside. Her spandex workout shorts clung tight to her thighs, and she cursed the heat-retaining material and her own lack of energy to get up and change her clothes.

Wistfully, she thought of late summer in Konoha. Balmy during the day, comfortable at night, with a breeze that pulled through the trees and her hair when she let it down, and…

Sakura never liked to dwell on thoughts of Konoha for too long. Used to having to constantly distract herself, she redirected her attention to how much time she had left before heading over to the nursing home across town. About two hours, which left enough time for her to shower this exercise grime off of her, do something with her hair and catch the 5:00 bus, and…

Her cell phone rang loudly on the coffee table. Cursing its volume, she forced energy into her limbs and reached for it, pleased to see Hinata's name on the Caller ID.

"Well hey there, gorgeous," she answered breezily.

"S-Sakura!" Hinata's voice was happy on the other end. "Hello, how are y-you?"

"Ugh, exhausted. Just got back from a run. I always forget how it _never cools off _here. How 'bout you?"

She reclined on the uncomfortable couch, deciding to make time for a nice long conversation with Hinata. She hadn't seen her dear friend in two years now, and when the guilt threatened to take over in her stomach, she tamped it back down with resolution. Leaving had been the right move. Of that, she was certain.

But it didn't make her miss her friends any less.

"Uh, good. Really good. Great, actually. Um…N-Naruto and I are g-getting married!"

Sakura almost choked on the gulp of water that was halfway down her throat. She swallowed it quickly, sat bolt upright, and exclaimed, "You're _what?!_ HINATA! CONGRATULATIONS!"

"Thank you!" Hinata sounded absolutely delighted, and Sakura really couldn't think of a woman on the face of the earth who deserved true love the way Hinata Hyuuga did. She'd been crazy about Naruto since kindergarten. "Last week. He asked me to m-marry him at the r-ramen stand."

"Typical," Sakura sighed, rolling her eyes, before catching the first part. "Last week? And nobody told me before now?"

"Oh. I'm really s-sorry, Sakura! It's just…you're so f-far away. And so b-b-busy. It gets a little…"

"Hard to communicate," Sakura finished, figuring she had no right to be upset when she was the one who'd left, even if it did sort of hurt. She used to be the first one to know anything in their group of friends; now, with the separation and her schedule keeping her so isolated from everyone, she was an afterthought. "No, I understand. I completely understand. But when are you guys getting married?"

"Soon," Hinata admitted. "Next month. After gr-graduation."

Sakura did some math in her head. She was a year younger than most of her friends, having skipped second grade, and she'd finished college a year before everyone else because of her workaholic study habits. Which meant that Naruto, Hinata and the others would be graduating college a month from now, and a year after she had. Moving forward so quickly in her life, it was easy to forget everything else happening around her.

The guilt wasn't so easy to ignore this time.

"And…we w-want you to be there, S-Sakura. It would m-mean a lot if y-you would c-come. I'd love for y-y-you to be my m-maid of honor."

Sakura's jaw dropped. "Me? Hinata, are you sure? What about your sister?"

"I love H-Hanabi, but w-we're not that cl-close. I can't t-tell her the th-things I can t-tell you. And I know I-Ino's your b-b-best friend, but you're m-mine." Hinata paused, and then her voice was stronger. "I really want you to come, Sakura. I can fly you home if you don't have the money."

"The money…isn't an issue," Sakura admitted. She could easily scrounge together a few hundred bucks to make it to her best friends' wedding. The problem was a 6'2" _mistake_ she wasn't too eager to see again. She tugged on her ponytail as she did when she was deep in thought.

"I know," Hinata replied softly. "It's S-Sasuke, right?"

Hearing his name twisted something in Sakura's stomach. She'd done such a good job these past few months avoiding anything Sasuke Uchiha-related, from his name to their memories; but sometimes there was no running from what had happened. She felt sick.

"We just…it didn't end well, Hinata. I don't want to get into it. It's…I don't know."

"I understand," Hinata replied, her voice even quieter, and Sakura bit her lip.

_I'm just being selfish, aren't I?_ she thought nervously. _God, I'm such an ASS. I can't let something that happened two years ago slide even for something as important as this wedding? No. No way. I won't be that girl. I can handle heading back to help her with the wedding preparation. I'll put together the best goddamn reception anyone's ever seen. And when it's over, I'll come right back here and it'll be like it never happened. And I'll barely have to see him at all._

"Of course I'll go," Sakura said, determined not to swallow the words back as she forced them out.

"Really?" Hinata exclaimed, joy lacing every word and making Sakura feel even worse. "You will? Oh Sakura! I'm so happy, you have no idea how much I've missed you! How much we've all missed you! This is going to be so perfect, thank you so much! When can you come back?"

"Classes don't end for me till next week, so after that. How long should I stay?"

"As long as you want," Hinata said fervently, stammer gone with her happiness. "I could use all the help I can get, the Hyuugas all have high expectations but none of them like to get their hands dirty and actually help, so…"

Sakura laughed before checking the time. "Oh, shit. I have to get ready for work. Do me a favor and message me all the information, okay? Sorry to cut it short, but I need to shower and get ready to check pulses for eight hours tonight."

"Oh, sure, no problem! Thank you _so much,_ Sakura!"

* * *

Standing under the harsh spray of a cool shower, Sakura watched the water swirl down the drain without really seeing it. Her mind replayed the last conversation over and over, and the sick feeling in her stomach flared up more severely with each passing minute.

_What did I just agree to? What is wrong with me? Am I a glutton for punishment, is that it?_

She'd done such a nice job building herself a life free of Sasuke Uchiha since their horrible breakup two years ago. Moved hours away. Transferred schools. Never visited.

Now, all her hard work was being rapidly undone, all because stupid Naruto and silly Hinata needed to get married at 22 for whatever reason. Despite being thrilled for their commitment to one another, she was furious at the timing.

_How can I go back there? How can I look him in the eyes without going CRAZY? Oh God, this is such a horrible idea. I'm not ready to see him. I can't. I won't._

But Sakura was resigned to her fate already. Second thoughts, second guesses, none of it mattered.

_I have to. Oh holy shit._

* * *

**note..** Because I am horrendously bad at staying focused on one thing at a time, here's another story. I took a plot from an old story I'd written in the DC universe and I'm incorporating some aspects of it into this one, since it's been years and I hope to God I've improved since then.

So what do you think? Please, as always, don't favorite or alert without a review here and there. I appreciate it!

Have a good night :)

xoxo Daisy


	2. Waiting to Exhale

Sasuke pinched the bridge of his nose and tried to suppress a wild headache.

The words on the page were starting to blur together; hours and hours of endless studying were taking their toll on him. This wasn't exactly how he pictured spending his last few days at college, but once he had his degree, maybe it would be worth it.

If he ever passed these finals, that is.

Frustrated, he slammed his textbook shut and sat back in his chair, the heels of his hands pressed to his eyes. His stomach growled a reminder that he hadn't eaten anything since last night, and it was getting dark outside already. His phone, set to silent, told him both that it was well after seven, and nearly all of his friends had texted him about partying tonight.

Annoyed with both, he set his phone back down and stood out of his hard-backed wooden desk chair, rolling his tense shoulders to restore some feeling to his muscles. A trip to the cafeteria to grab some food was in order; he'd bring it back to his dorm and try to absorb some last-minute information before his finals began tomorrow.

Resigned to that plan, Sasuke tugged his shoes on and opened the door, only to find Naruto standing in the threshold, fist raised, as if he was just about to knock.

"Tch," Sasuke scoffed. "What do you want, idiot."

"To talk to my best friend!" Naruto exclaimed, his loud, optimistic voice reverberating off the concrete walls of the hallway and aggravating Sasuke's migraine. "What's the harm in that?"

"Whatever it is, the answer's no," Sasuke replied, sidestepping his friend. He shoved his hands in his pockets and headed towards the stairwell.

"It's about the wedding," Naruto began, hurrying after him, but Sasuke raised two fingers to stop him.

"Enough about the fucking wedding, you moron. I told you I'd show up the day of. Not that I'd pick out flowers."

"Hinata's got the flowers, douchebag, now slow up, this is important! You have duties as my best man, as you very well know! And you've been slacking every step of the way."

Sasuke kept walking, Naruto stalking him every step of the way, all the way outside to the quad. This wasn't helping his headache at all, and he still had six chapters to fucking memorize before an 8 am exam, and…

"Sakura's coming back!"

Sasuke _froze._ His mind went blank. His heartrate accelerated as it always did when Sakura's name was brought up, and something leaden twisted in his stomach. He became distantly aware that Naruto was still talking, but he couldn't hear the words.

_She's coming back._

"…maid of honor." Slowly, Naruto's voice started to make sense again, unlike the rest of Sasuke's life, apparently. "And she said she'd come back after her semester, to help out with the wedding. So what do you think, man?"

Sasuke's body reacted before his mind could catch up. He flung his hand out and caught Naruto by the collar, slamming him up against the red brick wall to Fire Hall. He was vaguely cognizant of the fact that students passing by gasped, pointed, whispered, were gathering around, but he didn't care. His grip tightened.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he snarled. His voice sounded more animal than human, but his rage pervaded every other emotion.

Naruto didn't back down. He was probably the only person who wasn't intimidated whenever Sasuke snapped and lost control. His blue eyes full of determination, he snapped back, "What are you talking about? I'm getting married!"

"_Why are you bringing her back here?_"

Naruto smacked Sasuke's hand away and scoffed. "She's one of our best friends, you dick, of course she's coming to our wedding! Now suck it up! You've been a shit best friend and a shit best man, but I'm not gonna let your shit with Sakura ruin things this time! This could be your chance, bonehead! To get her back for good!"

"I told you to _stay out of it,_" Sasuke snarled, the need to pulverize Naruto's stupid face all-consuming. He'd thought he'd beaten it into the idiot's skull after the break-up two years ago, that under no circumstances did he want anyone interfering, trying to help, trying to fix it. What happened was undoable.

"It's not all about _you,_ asshole!" Naruto yelled back. "Hinata wants Sakura here, I want Sakura here, all of us want Sakura here including and _especially_ you! I know how bad you want her back, even if you won't admit it! Get the hell over yourself. It's happening. And this could be your chance to set things right!"

Sasuke couldn't handle any more. Any traces of hunger he might've had coming out here evaporated along with the rest of his temper. In a fury, he stormed past Naruto the way he'd come, into his building, up the stairs. Naruto had the good sense not to follow, and Sasuke locked himself back in his dorm.

Fucking nightmare.

* * *

It took a good five minutes to calm down.

He paced back and forth across his sparsely-decorated single, too anxious and too pissed to relax. She was coming back. Sakura was coming back.

He had no idea how he was supposed to feel about it. Besides this sickening jumpiness, like he was about to be attacked but didn't know from which angle, there was no way to process the thoughts running rampant through his head.

Since their (admittedly awful) break-up during his sophomore year, and her subsequent transfer to Suna University, Sasuke had permitted absolutely no conversation about Sakura Haruno. All of their friends, most especially Naruto, had shown every sign of wanting to discuss what had happened, but Sasuke simply refused to hear it. It was too raw, too painful, and even years later, it ached like it did that first day he'd woken up and remembered she was gone.

He'd never counted on seeing her again. She'd done such a good job breaking the bonds between them, never giving him her number or her address, and besides an occasional conversation with Naruto or Hinata or Ino or Kiba or any of the others, she wasn't keeping touch, either. Deleted her Facebook account, and never visited. Two years it had been, since she'd been back.

_Why now, Sakura?_ He thought angrily. _Why come back now? You've already missed so much, what's one more thing to miss?_

He wasn't sure who was to blame for their breakup. Even two years of self-loathing and trying to puzzle out whose fault it was, or who was more responsible, and he still couldn't tell you where it all went wrong. Eventually, unable to move on and unable to forgive her or himself, he'd resolved to just _forget._

There wouldn't be another girl like Sakura Haruno for him. And he wouldn't try to find one. He'd put her in the past where she belonged, never think about her if he could help it (and he couldn't), never go backwards. He'd finish college, get a job, and lock the doors on love (because that's what it was, all those months ago.)

He sank into his chair, elbows on his knees, as he tried to process his thoughts. He hadn't expected this, not in a million years. He knew Sakura, at least once upon a time, and knew how stubborn she was; perhaps even more stubborn than he was. She wouldn't be the one to crack first, the one to come back.

But she _was._

And he had no idea how he was supposed to prepare for that.

* * *

Against his better judgment, Sasuke met up with Kiba, Shikamaru, and the others for a party that night. With so much cramming to do before his finals, it probably wasn't the best move; but earth-shattering news required alcohol sometimes. And in copious amounts at that.

He wanted to forget. Needed to. His life was coming apart at the seams just at the mere _suggestion_ that he might see his ex-girlfriend again, and his only true friend at this moment was the generously-sized bottle of Captain Morgan in his hand.

He knew he should be focusing on himself, and these precious last few days at college. It hadn't been such a bad experience, horrific heartbreak notwithstanding; he'd made a lot of good friends that he genuinely cared about, and even if they knew they would be friends forever, it wouldn't quite be the same when they'd all graduated and gone their separate ways.

So he took shots with Kiba, pretended not to notice Naruto, played Flip Cup with Sai and didn't fight his way out of pictures with Karin. He ignored Ino's all-knowing stare and toasted to forever with them all.

It backfired, though. Drunk and fed up with his life, it backfired when he stumbled into his dorm room at 4 in the morning. His head spun, and far from purging himself of thoughts of Sakura, he'd only exacerbated them. Through the haze of alcohol, all he could see was the look on her face that terrible day at her apartment, the last time he'd seen her.

And as he collapsed onto his carpet, drunk, defeated, and clueless, he knew he couldn't fight the obvious any longer.

Underneath all the anger he still carried, under the anguish and the rage and the confusion, Sasuke was _desperate_ to see what had happened to his ex-girlfriend.

She was coming back. She was coming home.

He passed out in a strange sort of purgatory between terror and happiness.

* * *

_It was raining. There was a train station involved._

_Such a cliché._

_But Sakura wouldn't be Sakura without the histrionics. That much had always been true, and always would be._

_She was beautiful, always had been beautiful, always would be. But there was something else to her that horrible, horrible night, with the sky stained gunmetal gray and rain falling in torrents. Sakura, terrifyingly, was the kind of girl who was most beautiful when she was sad._

"_What are you doing?" he demanded, his voice sounding dead, because he saw the suitcases in her little hands, saw her hunched slightly from the weight. Read the 'goodbye' in her eyes, and also the 'good riddance.' He reached out for her, but she pulled back._

_She never pulled back. Only she did._

"_Don't follow me," she whispered, but her voice carried like a scream. He'd never heard such heartache before in his life, and not in a girl as bubbly and vivacious as Sakura Haruno. "Just…just get out of here, Sasuke. Go back. This is over. We're over. Don't follow me, don't you dare follow me!"_

* * *

Sasuke's exams went well, all things considered. He had barely studied, shown up hung over in yesterday's clothes, and suffered a headache so excruciating, he could barely read the words on the paper. But it was over. Finally. College, as he knew it, was over.

He had a few more days, though, before graduation, time to spend with his friends before they all went their separate ways, or not. Time to pack up his belongings and find a place to stay. No way could he go back to Oto, where he'd grown up, which meant he'd have to undergo the daunting task of finding an affordable apartment in Konoha. And a _job._

Naruto found him on the way back from his last exam. Sasuke sighed, hearing his best friend's shout and the subsequent running footsteps that found them face to face with one another in the middle of the quad; honestly, he was surprised this follow-up conversation hadn't happened sooner. Given Naruto's inability to _let things go,_ Sasuke expected a bloody confrontation the night before, at the party at Kiba's.

Maybe he should give him credit for postponing it, at least.

"Hey, man," Naruto said, his tone cheerful, as he fell into step beside his friend. Any lingering animosity from their spat the night before was gone, one of the upsides to their bizarre relaitonship; they never stayed hostile for long. "How were your finals?"

"Hn. Fine."

"Mine were great! Well, I cheated off Hinata a little in Poli Sci, but…"

"Tch. You're a Poli Sci major. You should know this shit by now."

"Well, I'll figure it out when they elect me president, believe it! This is just bureaucratic shit."

"Hn. Whatever."

"There's a party at Kiba's again tonight. To celebrate graduating."

"Thought we did that last night."

"Well, to recelebrate graduating, then. Who cares! Any excuse to get plastered, right?"

Sasuke chuckled. No disputing that. "Aa."

Naruto put his arms behind his head and looked up at the sky, a brilliant, beautiful blue. "You gonna miss it?"

"Hn?"

"College."

"Hn. No." And he meant it. College was fine, but it was over now. Or, it would be, after the ceremony next week, supposing he'd passed all his finals. And there were highlights, and there were horrors, but he doubted he would miss sleeping in his cramped dorm, dealing with his asshole friends, and studying for tests that would no doubt be useless to his career as a lawyer. Now, he had three years of law school and an agonizing bar exam to look forward to, all while working some certainly horrific side job to finance everything.

He wasn't necessarily excited to leave Konoha University, but he was definitely eager to get the next phase of his life started.

Hopefully this one wouldn't be packed to bursting with memories of things he'd much rather leave behind.

"You say that now," Naruto said knowingly, the expression on his face almost smug, "but you'll see someday that you'll miss it like crazy. We'll all be friends forever, we know that, but it won't be the same. We won't have constant access to each other."

Sasuke saw nothing wrong with that, but decided not to tell Naruto.

"At least you're staying in Konoha. So are Kiba and Ino and Shikamaru. So most of us, at least. And maybe we can persuade Sakura to transfer to Konoha Medical School! She'd fit right back in, believe it! And…"

"Stop it. It's over, idiot. Stay out of it." Sasuke's words lacked the venom from yesterday, and sounded, to his horror, almost pleading. His front of apathy towards the Sakura situation was diminishing rapidly. And soon everyone would see how he still wasn't over her, even after all this time.

"I'll stay out of your relationship," Naruto said firmly, and Sasuke was surprised; he'd expected to have to work much harder at getting his friend to go along with his wishes. Naruto's sudden compliance, however, made him wary.

"But?" he prompted impatiently.

"But you can't shy away from this now," Naruto finished. "You're my best man. She's Hinata's maid of honor. That means you've got to get along with her. No avoiding her. No acting like she doesn't exist. I'll keep my nose out of it, but you gotta come through."

Sasuke weighed his options. All Naruto wanted from him was civility. And even if he resented the dubious honor, he _was_ best man, and after four years of brohood, he couldn't very well turn his back on Naruto on his wedding day.

In return, Naruto promised to keep his meddling nose out of the situation with Sakura.

"Fine," he said tersely. It was an odd agreement, one he felt benefited Naruto more in the long run, but what other choice did he have? It wasn't like he could pull a Sakura, and run away when things got complicated.

Bitterness twisted in his stomach. She didn't _deserve_ his twisted feelings for her, but that didn't make them disappear.

"When's she…coming back." He wouldn't say 'home.' Sakura had made her home on the other end of the world.

"I talked to her this morning," Naruto admitted, almost sheepishly, like it was an indiscretion to have done so. "She told me she finishes her semester this weekend. Hinata got her to agree to come back for the wedding planning and everything, so…"

"So?" Sasuke was not a patient man, even less so when dealing with the matter of his ex-girlfriend.

"She'll be…here for graduation," Naruto finished, eyeing his friend warily, like he expected Sasuke to explode at the unexpected news.

Sasuke took it oddly, irrationally, with a notable degree of calmness. Maybe he was suppressing his actual take on the situation, maybe not. But he was going to see Sakura anyway. What difference would it make if he met her next week, or next month at the wedding? It wasn't like he'd figure out a way to be more prepared and less _turned inside the fuck out_ in the meantime.

"She's gonna stay with Ino, I think. Till the wedding." Naruto continued warily, seeing Sasuke's nonviolent reaction to the news that Sakura would be coming soon, and staying longer. Sasuke kept his hands in his pockets so Naruto wouldn't see them tremble. "Help the girls out with colors and flowers and shit. All the stuff I don't have any clue about, since Hinata won't let me wear orange."

Sasuke snorted. It wasn't that funny, but he needed to do _something_.

"She'll make it easier for all of us," Naruto said. "She's good at that stuff. Helping out. Has good taste, you remember her dorm room back when she stayed here?"

Images he'd long since banished to the back of his mind rushed to the forefront, images of pink hair splayed against royal purple sheets, limbs tangled in the shimmery silver curtains because they just couldn't make it to the bed in time, a lime green plush carpet he used to spend hours on studying with the girl he thought he'd marry someday.

Great taste indeed.

"She…doesn't sound mad, if it means anything," Naruto said cautiously. "I mean…she didn't sound bitter on the phone. She knows you're best man."

Sasuke paused. Her reaction to his presence was something he really hadn't considered. He'd been so wrapped up in how he would react to her that he forgot that he wasn't Sakura's favorite person either.

"Hn."

"I mean…I don't know, man. It's not my business, I get that. But if she was really still upset about what happened, she wouldn't come back. Not even for our wedding. You know Sakura. Better than any of us, anyways!" he added with a nervous laugh. "So…you know if she…hated you or whatever, she would've turned us down. But she didn't."

Naruto had a point. Sakura was a whirlwind of dramatics, ruled by her emotion, and she was the most stubborn person on the face of the earth. That she was coming back, even for something as monumental as the Uzumaki-Hyuuga wedding, spoke volumes about her feelings towards him, and their precarious situation.

Maybe she'd moved on.

There was probably somebody else now, anyway. Sasuke was prepared for that much, at least. He couldn't expect a girl like Sakura Haruno, beautiful, hilarious, sweet and brilliant, to be single for very long. And they'd broken up two years ago, for reasons he still couldn't quite understand. He was always battling back all her would-be suitors; everyone adored her.

She had all the right in the world to charm a thousand guys into falling in love with her. Not even he could resist her.

Even if the very thought of someone else kissing her the way he had, touching her the way he had, _loving_ her the way he had, still made him physically sick to his stomach, it was unreasonable, and naïve to the point of foolishness, to assume a girl like _Sakura Haruno_ was as broken about their break-up as he was; too broken to try again with anyone else.

His stomach was starting to hurt. He attributed it to the vicious hangover he still hadn't quite recovered from. The only cure was to eat something, and party even harder tonight than he had the night before. And tamp down the anxiety brewing inside him at the imminent arrival of the girl who'd turned him inside out, and taken the jagged shards of his heart with him when she left.

"Aa," he replied to Naruto, vaguely. He wanted Captain Morgan again. He wanted to sleep without dreams and when he saw Sakura again, he wanted to be ready. Armed. Apathetic. He'd never let her know what she did to him, and when she left again, he wouldn't stop her.

He'd never been able to stop her.

* * *

**note..** phew. here you go, lovelies. this and catalyst and I LOVE WRITING THIS STORY ALREADY. this and limit are my favorites to work on at the moment. excited to have some sasuke/sakura bitter confrontation hollaaaaaa at me. HOW DID I DO, BEAUTIES?

have a wonderful night!

xoxoxoxoxox DAYZEE :)


	3. Numb and Neutral, Only Not

Konoha Airport was as bustling as she remembered it. Scrambling to collect her suitcases from baggage claim, she recalled the last time she'd been here: a school trip to Kumogakure. In five years, it hadn't changed much.

Sakura wondered if her friends would think the same thing about her.

Konoha University's graduation was taking place that evening. Ino would pick her up from the airport any minute now, drive her back to her place to drop off her things, and then she had a ticket to watch the ceremony. Beyond that, there was only a month until the wedding, during which she would help Hinata and the others with the planning process.

_Who the hell plans a wedding with such a tight deadline?_ she thought, frowning slightly as she turned her phone back on. _One month is an insanely short amount of time to have everything ready…then again, this IS Naruto's wedding. I guess I should just focus my efforts on making sure he doesn't walk down the aisle in an orange tuxedo._

Amused at the imagery, she dialed Ino's number.

Her erratic best friend answered on the first ring.

"DID YOU LAND?" she shrieked, and Sakura winced, holding the phone slightly away from her ear.

"Yeah, just got in. Are you here yet? Should I meet you in the parking lot?"

"Nope! Come to the Starbucks by Terminal A. Got a surprise for you!"

Before Sakura could inquire any further, Ino had hung up. _Damn it, Terminal A is halfway across the airport!_ She thought, frustrated. _Whatever surprise she has better be a vanilla bean frappuccino with cherries on top!_

It was slow, clunky work making her way from Terminal F to A, between her suitcase with the broken handle strap and the wheelie one with the wheels that kept jamming, and her purse slung haphazardly across her shoulder full of things. Her bangs kept sliding forward in her eyes, and her stomach rumbled unattractively; stale airline pretzels and thin orange juice were not enough to sustain a human. Seeing Sasuke that night at the ceremony was becoming less and less of a frightening prospect with her travel frustrations. She kept getting jostled to and fro by other travelers in as much of a rush as she was, and it was only when she reached Terminal A that she remembered why she was here in the first place.

_Tonight you get to see all your friends again, _she thought, smiling warmly. _All the people you dicked out of a proper goodbye. Stop being so fucking negative._

She stepped inside the Starbucks, fully expecting to see Ino, but what she got was something else entirely.

* * *

Sasuke sat at the Starbucks counter, his hands shoved in his pockets, his features schooled into a mask of convincing apathy. A quick glance at his face reflected in the shiny granite countertop confirmed that outwardly, he did not look like a complete, psychotic mess.

Inside, though, was a different story.

He wasn't ready for this. Regardless of what he'd promised Naruto last week, he wasn't ready to see her again. Two years, and the wounds were still fresh. He was still angry. He was still confused. He hadn't had so much as a whisper of closure, and seeing her again was going to feel like hot oil under his skin.

Ino was supposed to pick her up from the airport by herself, but once she'd mentioned it, there was absolutely no stopping the rest of them. In the end, Naruto, Hinata, Kiba, Sai, Shikamaru, Chouji, Shino, Lee, Tenten, and Neji all rushed to the airport to greet her; he was forced to come, upholding his end of the deal with Naruto, but at the moment, he would very much like to have spurned Naruto's peace treaty.

He didn't want to be here. He sat at the counter with an untouched Styrofoam cup of black coffee in front of him, his hands in his pockets so no one would notice how sweaty his palms were. He had to graduate in a few hours, for crying out loud. So close to the fucking finish line, only to trip at the last mile.

Everyone was buzzing excitedly, and Sasuke couldn't understand it. Weren't they supposed to be furious with her for leaving in the first place? She'd left with almost no explanation to any of them. In fact, to his knowledge, only Ino Yamanaka knew Sakura's reasoning for her unexpected departure two years ago, and it remained the _only_ thing she hadn't blabbed about in her entire life.

So why did it feel like he was the only one holding onto anger right now? Glancing around at the rest of his friends, holding signs and balloons like she was coming home from _war_ instead of her fancy new apartment in her fancy new life, he noticed that everyone looked nothing short of jubilant. The prospect of Sakura returning, however briefly, seemed to outweigh everyone's excitement that they would be fucking _graduating_ that evening. No anger there.

"There she is!" exclaimed Kiba suddenly, and Sasuke ground his teeth together so hard he was surprised they didn't crack. He tried not to, he really did, but his eyes shifted towards the front of the Starbucks.

His breath caught in his throat.

There was no mistaking her. She hadn't noticed their party yet, judging by the way she was looking to and fro, pink hair, much longer than he remembered it, whipping back and forth. She was as small and slender as he pictured, in a pair of denim shorts and a loose white summer sweater, and even from a distance, he was struck by her beauty. The years had been kind to her.

"SAKURA!" Ino screamed, and she looked up, and vaguely realized his nails bit into the skin of his palms nearly hard enough to bleed.

Her eyes, mint green and piercing, rested on her best friend and a blinding, dizzyingly gorgeous smile unfurled across her shiny pink lips. The heavy bags she'd been tugging along were dropped instantly, and she ran into Ino's wide open arms with a squeal of happiness.

Sasuke tore his gaze away. He couldn't fucking do this. No one told him she would smile like that. No one told him she would be even more beautiful than she had been two years ago.

She was swarmed by the rest of them a nanosecond later. Naruto ripped her out of her hug with Ino and spun her around in the air while she laughed like a toddler being picked up by her favorite uncle. Hinata gleefully showed off her engagement ring; all of them hugged her with nothing but joy at being reunited written all over their faces.

He remained utterly frozen, absolutely no idea how to proceed at this point.

He'd promised Naruto. He'd promised his best friend to set aside his animosity and stress over Sakura. And he was trying, he really was.

But did she have to come dancing back into his life like a pint-sized _wrecking ball_ to his practiced apathy?

When a curious hush fell across the group a few seconds later, Sasuke guessed that she must have finally seen him. Swallowing his heart, he turned to face her, his eyes slanted in what he hoped was disconnect, and he made eye contact with her for the first time in two years.

Beautiful green eyes widened slightly in what he assumed was surprise. _Not expecting me, huh, _he thought dryly, strangely drawing resolution from pessimism. He rose to his feet but didn't draw any closer; he'd let her do that, since she was the one to put such distance between them in the first place.

He felt them all staring, but ignored it. If his asshole friends wanted a show, they came to the wrong place. He wouldn't dignify Sakura's return with a reaction. She didn't deserve it after the shit she pulled. She'd ripped his heart out of his chest. He would never let her see how it still affected him.

"Sasuke," she breathed, and her voice was like satin, sweet and lilting with that sexy rasp to it. Against his will, he remembered the way she used to sigh his name in his ear late at night, wrapped around him like a salve. He ground his teeth harder against the flood of mental images.

"Hn," he replied. He wouldn't move. He wouldn't budge. He wouldn't say her name.

The others were silent now, and the atmosphere had gone from joyous to painfully tense. Sakura looked nervous. She shifted from one foot to the other, and it looked like she was reaching out to him, to hug him or shake his hand, he couldn't tell, but she seemed to think better of it, and tucked her hair behind her ears instead. He remembered she used to do that when she was stressed.

_Good,_ he thought, coldly satisfied that she was at least marginally as fucked up about this reunion as he was. _At least SOME things haven't changed about you._

Sasuke looked away. _How in hell am I supposed to do this for a month? I can't even make eye contact for five SECONDS without wanting to throw something._

Naruto seemed to sense the dangers of allowing Sakura and Sasuke to interact much futher, and rushed to intervene. He slung an arm around her shoulders and said, "Come on, gorgeous! Let's get back to KU, we gotta graduate!"

"We have SO MUCH to catch you up on!" Tenten said happily. "Neji, don't be an ass, get one of her bags or something!"

But Lee beat him to it, and snatched both of Sakura's heavy-looking bags from the floor where she'd abandoned them in her hurry to hug her old friends.

"Anything for the beautiful Sakura!" he called loudly, and Sasuke rolled his eyes. He'd put up with enough of Lee's revolting declarations of love and affection towards Sakura back when they'd dated and years before. Did he really have to hear it again?

She giggled, flattered apparently, and his stomach clenched in what he recognized as jealousy, but dismissed as irritation.

This was already shaping up to be a disaster. He was going to have to spend a lot of time with the wedding party over the next month; as best man, he had a number of duties he was expected to perform, and Naruto was stupid. He would need more assistance than the average groom-to-be.

And with Sakura as maid of honor, that meant they would be virtually joined at the hip over the coming month.

It was too much. It really was. Naruto should have foreseen this. It was temptation and regret all at once, bitterness and anger and longing and underneath all of that, though he tried very hard to hide it, _hurt._ She was standing three feet away from him, shining and gorgeous as ever, and he still _missed_ her.

He hated himself for it, but he was desperate to know who she was now. If she was as similar to the girl he'd loved all those years ago as she appeared to be, or if he was standing in front of a stranger.

He didn't know if he hated her. He didn't know if he loved her. He didn't know much of anything, other than the fact that she'd been in his sights for two minutes and already his entire world was turned upside down.

* * *

Sakura ignored the hummingbird beat of her heart, and as the massive entourage left the airport together, she chose to focus on how happy she was to be around her old friends again.

It was all she could do not to burst into happy tears.

She'd expected Ino to pull her car up to the sidewalk and a happy reunion with her best friend. What she'd gotten was _everyone_ from Konoha University she used to hang out with, all of them carrying balloons and signs that read "WELCOME HOME, SAKURA!"

She'd missed them all terribly, but to her shame, it had been easier than one might think throwing herself into her new life and leaving everything else behind. Not necessarily _forgetting_ everyone back home, but sort of compartmentalizing them. Postponing any intense thought about her impulsive decision to leave two years ago, because she knew she would feel nothing but crushing guilt if she took the time to think about it.

Now, though, there wasn't any running from it. She was back, and while she had prepared herself mentally for her old friends' anger at her abrupt departure, she was completely unprepared for their tangible happiness at seeing her again. It warmed her heart, and the guilt she had been running from hit her with full force. These wonderful people, friends she'd loved since childhood, still loved and missed her after everything she'd done.

How could she ever have left them?

More importantly, would she be able to leave them again, when the month was up, Hinata and Naruto were married, and she returned to life in Suna?

She shook her head as she took a seat in the minibus they'd rented specifically to pick her up. It was no use dwelling on something so far off, and besides…

Sasuke's icy reception of her spoke volumes on how he felt about her return. She didn't think she could necessarily blame him, given that she'd never really told him why she left, and now that two whole years had passed, there seemed like there would be little use in explaining nowadays.

_I did the right thing,_ she thought, trying to listen to Tenten's rapidfire monologue about their last semester at college while ignoring the smothering presence of Sasuke Uchiha, sitting in the back row behind her. _I had to leave. I did the right thing, I know I did. And he can hate it all he wants, hate ME all he wants…it'll make it that much easier to go back to Suna after the wedding._

Between the long flight from Suna, the sheer joy at reuniting with her old friends, and the complete agony at seeing her ex-boyfriend all at one time, Sakura was absolutely exhausted.

_I really hope I don't sleep through the ceremony tonight,_ she thought wryly, smiling at Tenten to show she was at least _trying_ to listen. _I can't give them one more reason to hate me._

* * *

In two hours, it was over.

The end of four years, and the end of an era.

Sasuke held his college degree in his hand.

There was a raucous party, obviously. Everyone crowded into the common room, showered in booze and happiness, because even if it only got harder from here on out, they really had accomplished something. Sasuke figured that his family would be proud of him, if they were still alive. If he was a screw-up in every other facet of his life, at least he was a college graduate.

He sat on one of the overstuffed communal couches, sort of disconnected from the festivities. He really wasn't sure how to nail down any one of his feelings, which left him in a vague kind of haze. Like something was about to happen, something big, at any given moment, but he wasn't sure what it would be or when it would happen.

He was eager to get the next phase of his life going. Law school would start in the fall, and he'd be too busy for the things he had time for these days: sports, and friends, and partying. Would he miss it? Would he miss his college life?

His eyes wandered for the umpteenth time to the pink-haired maelstrom in the center of all the action. She was tipsy, judging by the slight sway to her step, and laughing like the life of the party he remembered her to be.

He doubted he'd miss college as much as he missed her.

Even if she didn't deserve it, and she _didn't,_ Sasuke knew that all of this pent-up aggression he felt stemmed from the incontrovertible fact that he'd _missed her._ Everything had happened so fast, followed by two years of agonizing _slowness,_ and now it was rushing by again. He couldn't keep up, so he shut himself down.

Sasuke resolved to see this thing through to the end. Sakura would never know that she'd taken her heart with him when she left, if there was any justice in the world, and he could return to life as it had been a week ago.

Numb.

Numb and moving forward and never looking back.

He was interrupted by something cold pressing against his free hand. Blinking, he looked up, and saw Sakura standing in front of him, a very hesitant smile on her face as she looked down at him. She pressed the shot glass gently into his hand. Their fingers brushed by accident as he accepted it from her, and a jolt of electricity rocketed down his spine at her touch.

"Congratulations, Sasuke," she said quietly. He said nothing in response, just stared at her, and she smiled a bit wider and backed away, returning to the throng of partiers.

Knocking back the shot automatically, Sasuke cursed his foul luck.

Numb and moving forward and never looking back, except _always._

* * *

**note..** Please don't favorite or alert without a review every now and then, honeybooboos. YAFEELME.

How'd I do?

Have a good beauteous Sunday, y'all. Love you.


	4. The Upside of Anger

Sakura woke up to a raging headache and a text from Ino, whose place she was staying at.

"Early morning at the flowershop, babe. Get your beauty sleep! (You need it.)"

Sakura rolled her eyes and snuggled back under her blanket, determined to sleep until her head didn't feel like it was coming apart.

That was one thing she did _not_ miss about Konoha. The hangover frequency. At Suna, her friends were more straight-laced, and when they did go out and party, it was on occasion. The Konoha kids, however, found every excuse in the book to get wasted on a near-daily basis.

_If anyone knows where I left my liver,_ she thought with a groan, _make sure they forward it to my apartment in Suna._

Her phone buzzed again, this time a call from Hinata. Silently cursing her sweet friend, she answered with an unpretentious, "Huh?"

Hinata giggled on the other end.

"Morning, S-Sakura!" she chirped, entirely too cheerful for the early hour of 9 am. "Last night c-catching up with y-y-you?"

Sakura's stomach churned ominously, and she thought to herself how last night was closer to _coming_ up, but decided not to mention it.

"I'm good. What's up."

"Oh, we have a m-m-meeting with the pr-priest at n-noon. Where we're g-getting married."

"Okay," Sakura said dumbly, before realizing why Hinata was calling. "Oh! Okay, you want me to come with? Sorry, blame my stupidity on my lack of sleep and how drunk I still am."

"If you're f-feeling up to it," Hinata replied courteously.

"No, I'll go. Where should I meet you?"

"We'll p-pick you up at Ino's at 11:30. Is that o-okay?"

"Sure, sure, sure. Yeah, just text me when you're here."

"Okay! Thanks, S-Sakura!"

Sakura hung up and forced herself out of Ino's rather large bed. She preferred a harder mattress to sleep on, and Ino's appeared to be well-worn; the implications of this were not lost on Sakura, who groaned a little in disgust and stretched her shoulders. What she wouldn't give for a decent massage right now, before reminding herself that she was here to help her friends with their wedding, not bitch and moan about every little inconvenience.

A shower would do her wonders, she realized, staggering into the bathroom. She took one look at her reflection in the mirror and resisted the urge to cry; her makeup was smeared, mascara running down flushed cheeks, her eyes red-rimmed and glassy. Pink hair hung in a tangled mop of curls down her back, her bangs frizzy on her forehead, her clothes a rumpled mess. The epitome of effortless beauty.

Turning away, she couldn't help but giggle. Not twelve hours back in Konoha, and she was back to her old ways: partying till the break of dawn, drinking heavily, and waking up in yesterday's makeup reeking of bad decisions.

_Old habits die hard,_ she thought as she ran the shower water, likening the experience to a recovering drug addict being exposed to cocaine or heroin after a long stint in rehab; nearly impossible not to relapse. Stripping her clothes, she stepped under the hot spray and released an audible moan of pleasure.

_So, we're looking at the church they're getting married at,_ she thought, washing her face with apricot scrub (Ino had really, really good product, something Sakura planned on taking full advantage of during her stay in Konoha). _Shouldn't be too painful._

_ Provided, of course, they leave Sasuke at home._

Even thinking his name sent a thrill of electricity rocketing up her spine, and she couldn't tell if that was a good or bad thing. He looked roughly the same, maybe a bit taller, and even more handsome than she remembered. A chiseled jaw, smooth skin and broad shoulders, eyes that made her knees buckle, a slow smirk…

She'd be lying if she said she wasn't still attracted to him after all this time. Sasuke was gorgeous; it was an almost universally-accepted fact that most women _were_ attracted to him.

Remembering long, beautiful nights spent with him, she could safely say he was every bit as good in bed as he looked. She blushed at her own thoughts and furiously reminded herself that she was lucky he hadn't taken one look at her and punched her in the face. Admitting open attraction to him would be disastrous.

Seeing him had been every bit as difficult as she knew it would be. Feelings long since buried came rushing back to the forefront of her mind. Beyond the omnipresent attraction, she felt that warmth inside her, the one no boy had managed to instill in her since Sasuke, and never once before him. Butterflies, of all things, had taken root in her stomach. One look in his deep, dark eyes, and she felt like the two years she'd spent in Suna had never happened, that nothing had changed.

That she was still Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha's girlfriend and by all accounts, the luckiest girl at Konoha University.

She rinsed the conditioner from her hair and ignored the pang of agony in her heart when she realized that that girl died on a train station two years ago, and she wasn't coming back.

The most she could hope for from Sasuke at this point was civility, and even that, she doubted she deserved.

* * *

This was, by and large, a set-up.

Sasuke pulled up to Ino's apartment and wondered why he'd gone along with this in the first place.

Granted, Naruto's excuse sounded legitimate. They were supposed to pick Sakura up in a group, but at the last minute, Naruto called asking him to pick her up himself, since he and Hinata had to collect Hinata's father before they headed to the church, and there wouldn't be time to get all of them before noon.

Still, Sasuke felt like he'd been had.

If this was Naruto's genius way of getting him alone with Sakura, in the hopes that they might work out their dead-and-gone relationship in some perfect fucking fairy tale fashion, his moron best friend had another thing coming. Being around Sakura was like touching a live wire, talking to her was almost impossible. He was full of such _anger,_ and beyond that anger there was something frighteningly close to _longing._

After all this time, he still _wanted_ her.

He didn't trust himself alone with her, not even in a car on the way to a church. He didn't trust his prized self-control, and he suspected that a massive fight was looming in the future for both of them. After her abrupt departure two years ago, he hadn't gotten so much as a whisper of closure. Wounds between them were still raw, and this forced proximity to one another was doing little more than aggravating it.

Nonetheless, here he was.

He could easily have ignored Naruto, spurned his duties as best man, and let them book the wedding hall themselves. What the hell did they need Sasuke's input for, anyway? As if he had the first fucking clue what a good wedding venue was, or even the slightest interest in picking one out for Naruto and Hinata. He didn't _have_ to be here, but he was.

Bitterly, Sasuke realized that even though being around her hurt like hell, missing her was even worse. Sakura was a terrifying creature that way.

He didn't have her new phone number. She'd changed it right after leaving, and only gave it to a few of her old friends. Naruto had offered to tell him, but knowing that Sakura didn't want to speak to him, Sasuke refused to take it down.

Which meant, of course, he'd have to actually go up to Ino's apartment to let her know he was there.

Schooling his features into his default apathetic expression, and hoping nothing showed on his face but detachment, he parked the car in the lot and headed into the building.

* * *

The doorbell rang. Sakura, half-done straightening her hair, glanced at the clock. It was only 11:15; Naruto and Hinata were early. Shrugging, she set down the straightener and bounced over to the front door, throwing it open without looking in the peephole first.

"You guys are…" she began, before stopping mid-sentence, her eyes wide when she saw who was waiting in the threshold. Sasuke stood there, looking perfect unruffled, his hands in the pockets of his jeans, wearing a V-neck T-shirt and a bored expression on his face. He was alone.

"Early," she finished awkwardly, tucking her hair behind her ear. "Um…hey. I thought…Naruto was picking me up, with Hinata…in like a half-hour or something?"

"We're meeting them there," he replied, his voice deep and a little bit thrilling. Without waiting for her invitation, he stepped inside Ino's apartment and took a seat on the sofa.

"Okay," Sakura said. Her heart was racing at the unexpected arrival of her ex-boyfriend. She hadn't counted on this, on being alone with Sasuke for any stretch of time. Besides, of course, the agonizing moment they'd have to walk down the aisle together, a best man/maid of honor tradition in the Hyuuga family. But that was a month off; she thought she would have time to prepare for that. "I'm…still getting ready. I'll be done in a few minutes."

She all but ran out of the living room, back to the safety of the bathroom, and picked up her straightener with a shaky hand.

_I can't take this,_ she thought, biting her lip as she tried to negotiate her wavy hair into a suitable style with fingers that would not stop trembling. _I just can't. How can none of this affect him like it's affecting me? He just does not care, does he? I'm a MESS seeing him again, and he just sits there like nothing's wrong. God, what was I thinking, coming back here?_

Deep down, it hurt that Sasuke wasn't more upset about her coming back. Granted, he'd never been an overly demonstrative person, but to have absolutely no reaction to her presence here at all? After their agonizing break-up, which, she took responsibility for, all she got from him was detachment?

It meant one thing. That he'd moved on, and she was the idiot clinging uselessly to past drama. She was the idiot who'd spurned a thousand date offers from really nice boys in Suna, keeping faithful to a relationship that no longer existed. She was the idiot who'd come back here half-hoping Sasuke might be the same boy she loved at one point. Maybe still did.

To her _horror,_ tears burned in her eyes, blurring her reflection in the mirror. She hadn't cried about _anything_ in so long, but being back here was ripping open old wounds. Years of "moving on" crumpled in on themselves and she was reduced to an emotional, neurotic bundle of nerves with absolutely no direction.

Furious, she blinked back tears and attacked her hair with renewed vigor. No way. She was not that girl anymore. Sakura learned to handle her emotions; Dr. Tsunade would be irate to learn it had only taken a few hours with an ex-boyfriend to dismantle years of hard work. She was capable of this, of course she was. She could handle Sasuke's ice.

Smirking darkly at herself in the mirror, she wondered if he could handle her fire.

* * *

Sasuke was dimly satisfied to see Sakura so out of sorts.

Sitting on the sofa, he fought back a smirk as he waited for her to finish up on her hair, a process that used to take her twenty minutes. At least he wasn't the only one unnerved by her reappearance back in Konoha. At least she had the decency to be properly ruffled.

He didn't know what that meant, what reason she would have to be so nervous. Leaving had been her choice. She could have come back at anytime, no one was holding a gun to her head telling her otherwise. She had no right to be nervous about anything, but she was.

And even if he didn't know the reasons, he would have been furious if she was completely comfortable reinserting herself into a life she'd openly rejected years ago.

It was a bizarre, morbid pleasure he derived from her anxiety. Having been horribly deprived of seeing any reaction from her two years ago but tears he couldn't understand, there was something primitively satisfying watching her squirm. It proved that maybe she felt some iota of regret.

She emerged from the bathroom a few minutes later, and he forced himself to be blind to how frustratingly lovely she was. Dressed for the warm June day in a little red dress with a little denim jacket and ankle-high boots on her little feet, she looked every bit the personification of summer. He ignored the familiar tug of attraction and focused on her eyes instead.

To his surprise, she met his gaze square, even challenging. Unlike the skittish, awkward girl she'd been when he'd shown up at the door, there was something fiery in her eyes now. Her jaw was set, and she looked prepared for anything.

Anger pooled in his stomach. She didn't even have the decency to remain as nervous as he wanted her to be.

"Ready?" she asked. Her voice was not unkind, but it lacked any semblance of anxiety.

He didn't answer. Thickly furious with her newfound backbone, he stood off the couch and stalked outside without another word. He heard her follow behind him, the clacking of her boots on the sidewalk a familiar song from a time long gone, and realized he recognized this side of Sakura.

Sheer fucking rebellion.

She was steeling herself up against him. Smiling at him the night before, giving him a shot, telling him congratulations, all of it, she'd abandoned it. Whatever boundaries she'd managed to construct around her heart when she left were being rapidly reconstructed. She was trying to protect herself.

From him, he realized.

_Ridiculous,_ he thought, knowing that between his temper and hers, things were about to get very, very ugly. _All this time, and everyone thought you needed to be protected from me._

_ No one ever thought I'd need to be protected from YOU._

* * *

"Do you think it was a good idea?" Hinata asked nervously, pacing the front of the church. "H-Having Sasuke pick up S-Sakura without us?"

"Sure it was," Naruto replied, satisfied with the success of his plan. "All they need is some time alone together."

"But…we promised we w-wouldn't interfere…"

"Promises schmomises," Naruto scoffed. "This is _true love_ we're talking about!"

"Naruto we don't know wh-what happened between th-them. It really isn't our p-p-place…"

But he wouldn't hear it. He knew the dangers in pushing Sasuke too far, knew his best friend, knew his temper and the volatility that burned beneath the surface of his skin. Knew that that volatility was especially potent where Sakura was concerned. She was and remained the only girl to capture Sasuke's attention, and even if Sasuke refused to speak about it, Naruto knew his best friend was still in love.

And he knew that Sakura would never have agreed to come back, compromising her two-year mission to keep clear of Sasuke, unless she really wanted to. That meant that there were still feelings between them. Proof, that Naruto's suspicion was correct.

Their group needed Sakura to be complete. It was that simple. She couldn't be allowed to go back to Suna after the wedding, so Naruto resolved to give her nothing but reasons to stay. She could transfer to the medical school in Konoha, get an apartment with Sasuke, and things would be perfect, right?

Right.

Getting them to admit that to one another was going to be difficult, but hey, he had a whole month to work with.

And judging by the way neither one of them could keep their eyes off each other at the graduation party last night, Naruto doubted very much indeed they'd have to wait that long.

* * *

The ride to the church was uncomfortable, to say the least.

But if Sasuke wouldn't show his feelings, then neither would she.

Sakura stared straight ahead out the windshield, not speaking. Sasuke was silent as stars beside her, one hand on the gearshift, the other on the steering wheel. The radio was off, and the car was painfully quiet. Tension wasted no time in making a home between them, and Sakura wondered if maybe she shouldn't just get out of the car and walk the rest of the way.

No. Nope. No way. She could do this. She had to do this. She was a grown woman now, 21 and self-confident and capable of handling something as temporary as an uncomfortable car ride.

Even if the driver was her gorgeous ex-boyfriend who'd clearly moved on completely.

Would it kill him to show a little anger? Even hatred? Hatred and love were never far from each other. Love's true opposite was apathy; if you simply didn't care for someone, nothing they did could bother you, whereas if you hated someone, that still established an emotional bond between the two of you.

Sasuke, it seemed, didn't even hate her. He was as careless to her existence as if she'd been a houseplant.

Somehow, that hurt worse.

She squared her jaw and exhaled sharply through her nose, the most reaction he was going to get out of her today, and decided to try for some innocent conversation, just to fill the silence.

"Where's the church?" she asked, her tone light and lacking the heaviness she felt in her heart.

"Few miles," Sasuke mumbled cryptically.

"From where," she bit out, fighting now to keep her tone pleasant when her temper threatened to take over.

"Here."

"Which church?" she tried again.

"Hn."

"I see you haven't changed," she snapped, before she could stop herself. Sasuke glanced at her in surprise, and she saw that his eyes were narrowed.

_So you DO react,_ she thought, gravely satisfied that at least she could still provoke him to anger, if nothing else. Any emotion from him, she'd take it over his apathy.

"Neither have you," he said coolly, probably because he knew it would hurt the most. And it did. But Sakura had long since learned to use anger as a weapon whenever she was hurt, and it was high time to remind Sasuke exactly why her temper was so feared, since apparently he'd forgotten.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she demanded, glaring at him.

"Still as high-strung as you always were," he shot back without missing a beat, like he'd been thinking about it for awhile. He kept his face calm, but she noted the way his knuckles bleached where he gripped the steering wheel. His ears were red.

"High-strung?" she echoed furiously.

"Aa."

"You know I feel the need to remind you that no one MADE you come get me in the first place," Sakura snapped, folding her arms tight across her chest almost in self-defense. "I could've taken a cab or something. Since, you know, my high-strung tendencies make you too uncomfortable."

Sasuke flinched a little, but retorted with, "Nothing makes me uncomfortable."

That stung a little more than she wanted it to. After all they'd been through together, was discomfort on his end really too much to ask for?

* * *

When Sasuke pulled up to the church, he was five minutes late and five-alarm pissed.

In all his months of remembering Sakura Haruno, how could he possibly have forgotten how _infuriating_ she could be?

Nope. The past two years, he'd only bothered with recalling her good attributes. Her beauty, her sense of humor, her determination, her intelligence. Somehow he'd forgotten her most prominent quality: her expert skill in _pissing him off._

If her goal was to get him to react, it was working. They couldn't handle a half-hour car ride together without degenerating into a pair of bratty, argumentative toddlers. He was morbidly pleased to note that she was reacting, too, but any plans he had of crisp, cold apathy towards her had flown out the window.

They both stalked inside the church, keeping a noticeable difference between them. Sakura was huffy and her arms were crossed, her signature angry pose, and he knew he probably looked just as angry if not more so. He couldn't tolerate being in her company, at least not alone. The tension between them was so palpable that the slightest thing was bound to set either one of them off.

"You're late!" Naruto shouted from the front of the church, where he stood with Hinata and her family; her father Hiashi, her younger sister Hanabi, and their cousin Neji, who'd been forced to come along despite a hangover same as the rest of them.

"Sorry, Naruto," Sakura managed, her tone like acid. "Sasuke got us lost."

He glared at her. That wasn't true, but Sakura was on the warpath. Opening his mouth to retort and hopefully make her cry, he was cut off by the arrival of the priest.

"Why hello, there!" he said jovially, a squat old man named Father Sarutobi. Sasuke vaguely recalled him as the one to have married his parents years ago; he was in their wedding photos. Wrinkled and cheerful, he greeted them with a wide smile and a handshake. "Miss Hyuuga, congratulations! And to you as well, Naruto. Still the troublemaker you used to be in Sunday School?"

Naruto laughed. "No way, old man! I straightened out!"

Sakura rolled her eyes; Sasuke scoffed.

Introductions were made and greetings were exchanged, and Sasuke was perfectly comfortable tuning the rest of it out. He stood at Naruto's side, detached from the proceedings, and absolutely refusing to look at Sakura, who stood beside Hinata looking distractingly beautiful as always. Beauty was misleading. Beneath that charming exterior lay a cold, calculating demon with more than enough firepower to keep him sufficiently insane until she left again.

And even if she drove him crazy, part of him didn't want to see her go.

"You okay, man?" Naruto hissed in a stage whisper, while Father Sarutobi was explaining to the Hyuugas where they would be seated during the ceremony. "You look pissier than usual. So does Sakura."

"Shut up and pay attention," Sasuke shot back coldly.

"Did you guys fight or something?"

"Leave. It. Alone."

"She's the only girl who could ever rile you up like this," Naruto observed with a shit-eating grin, and Sasuke wondered if he could get away with slugging the groom in front of the priest. "Whatever you did to her, you better apologize. We're gonna be together a whole lot till the wedding, you know. Why don't you try being nice to her?"

"It's impossible," Sasuke ground out. "I can't take it. She drives me _crazy._"

Apparently, he wasn't as quiet as he thought he was, for when he looked up, he saw all the Hyuugas looking at him curiously, along with Sakura, whose expression, for one beautiful moment, was nothing less than hurt.

It wasn't as gratifying as he thought it would be, seeing his ability to truly hurt her after she'd hurt him. There was no rewarding payoff, no satisfaction in it, because apparently one thing was still true after all this time: whenever Sakura was sad, so was Sasuke.

But the sadness on her face was gone in an instant, replaced with one of narrow-eyed anger. The curl of her pretty pink lips promised pain, and there was a storm in her eyes that Sasuke didn't trust.

The rest of the consultation with Father Sarutobi passed quickly. Sasuke was broodingly silent; Sakura chimed in with her opinion when asked, but beyond that, settled for shooting him horrible glares beneath her pristine makeup when no one else was looking. He tried to be immune to her attitude, immune to her, but when had that ever worked out for him?

When it was time to go, he expected Sakura to get back into his car and continue her bitter rant at him for what she'd overheard him telling Naruto. Instead, they stepped outside, she waved goodbye to the Hyuugas, whom Naruto would be driving home, and then stalked towards the bus stop without so much as a word to him.

"Where are you going?" he demanded before he could stop himself.

"Taking a bus home," she ground out without looking back. "To Ino's. Like hell am I gonna sit in a car with _you_ so you can pick another fight with me."

Primitive instincts were returning, and in full force. Sasuke despised the idea of Sakura taking a seedy bus anywhere, pretty and approachable as she was. He always had, and whenever they'd had to go anywhere when they were dating, he either took her himself or made sure someone else was with her. He doubted she knew how much it bothered him when she went places alone, and he would never tell her.

"Get in the car," he snapped.

"Why?" she shot back, whirling around to face him, her pink hair flying behind her in the balmy breeze. The look on her face was scorching. "That eager for me to drive you crazy?"

She was throwing his words back in his face without really understanding the meaning behind him. He growled in anger under his breath and banished any misgivings he had about Princess Sakura taking the bus home like any other city girl, and turned away from her, towards his car.

When Naruto texted him that night repeatedly, wanting to know why Sakura had had to take the bus back to Ino's and was an hour late to their group dinner, Sasuke turned his phone off.

Everyone was so quick to identify him as the villain in the situation. Even he had, for the longest time, blamed himself for the animosity that now existed between himself and Sakura, where there had once been love and a happy, exciting relationship.

No one ever stopped to wonder if maybe, this whole time, Sakura was the one at fault.

Laying in bed that night, stewing in anger over how easily he had let her get under his skin, Sasuke knew that even if it was far too late to actually fix anything, he needed to find out the reason for Sakura's departure two years ago.

If for no other reason than to have someone to blame for the wreck he became, inside and out, after she left.

* * *

"He makes you so mad, Sakura. Still. You were only with him for a half hour and you're a mess."

"I know, Ino. I know. I didn't want to come back here, you know. I didn't plan for this to happen."

"Wouldn't it be…I don't know. Easier? To tell him why you left? Figure out what went wrong?"

"It wouldn't change anything." A bitter, humorless laugh. Another swig of whiskey. "It wouldn't make him forgive me. It wouldn't make me forgive myself."

* * *

**note..** i promise i'll get to the reason behind their break-up. pinky swear and junk.

holla at me! let me know what you think :)

good luck in frankenstorm! they might evacuate us in philly. and we're inland. SCARY SHIT JUST KIDDING I LOVE BIG STORMS. be safe!

xoxo Daisyyyy.


	5. Girls Who Run the World

The next morning found Sakura at breakfast with Hinata, Ino, and Tenten. Some things in Konoha changed unrecognizably, namely a certain ex-boyfriend, but others, like this diner they'd eaten a thousand breakfasts at before, stayed exactly the same; the coffee was sweet the way she liked it, they didn't chintz on the margarine and the fried potatoes were crispy on top and soft underneath.

"All right, ladies," Ino said bossily. "The focus of today is…the reception. We need to find a nice venue that will dazzle and amaze."

"And is cost-efficient," Tenten chimed in dryly.

"Oh please. Hinata's a _Hyuuga. _You're telling me they can't afford something pricey?"

"I'm dating a Hyuuga, remember? And they're full of money, and completely unwilling to spend any." Tenten rolled her eyes over her pancakes, her relationship with frugal Neji the basis for her bias.

"Tenten's right," Hinata sighed. "It's got to be ch-cheap. Or F-Father will never go for it."

Sakura was listening, and maybe it was the cynic in her, but she really couldn't see why all this fuss was necessary. Naruto and Hinata were still so young. Did they really need the whole wedding to be together? What was so wrong with wanting to start your career first, become financially secure, and worry about marriage later? What was so wrong with being boyfriend-and-girlfriend for awhile, until you could afford the big wedding you wanted so badly?

Why the rush?

"All right, so let's brainstorm some ideas," Ino said, clearly bent on controlling Hinata's wedding come hell or high water. She pulled a notebook from her purse and a pen, and looked around at her friends expectantly. "Where do we want to party?"

Sakura tuned out most of the conversation. She didn't feel much like talking, and sort of nodded along whenever one of them said something that sounded decent. She was the maid of honor and knew she should act like it, but she felt such a disconnect from the proceedings that to offer any advice at all would sound insincere.

_This makes no sense to me,_ she thought. _All this fuss, all this silliness…who gets married in a month, anyway? It takes a long time. Money. Effort and thought and all kinds of things, and they JUST graduated. Two days ago. I don't get what the big hurry is._

"Hey!"

She looked up, startled, to see all three girls staring at her expectantly; Ino was frowning.

"Are you even paying attention?" she snapped. "What do you think about having it at the Konoha Grand Ballroom?"

Sakura snorted before she could stop herself. "You think that the Hyuugas would spring for a reception at the _Ballroom?_ I don't think they'd fork over enough cash for _Burger King._"

Hinata and Tenten laughed, but Ino looked frustrated as she leaned back in her chair and folded her arms. Blowing a stubborn blonde bang out of her eyes, she hissed, "Well you haven't suggested anything yet, Forehead. What gives?"

"What do I know about planning weddings?" Sakura shot back, a little irritated at the line of questioning. "I'm here to vote yea or nay."

"Oh please. You and I have been planning our weddings since middle school. Don't think I never caught you daydreaming about it when you and Sasuke were toge…"

Ino broke off, looking horrified, but the damage had been done. As far as low blows went, that one was pretty brutal. Hard green eyes glared at her empty coffee cup, which she suddenly wished was full of a drink decidedly alcoholic.

A biting, bitterly awkward silence descended over their table. Around them, the other diner patrons carried on conversation, the clink of silverware on dishes in the background; Sakura ignored everything and everyone around her, forced unwillingly back in time to a place she couldn't handle revisiting...

* * *

_It was rainy. Springtime in Konoha always was. Spring Break was a bit of a bust this year; the typical week-long trip to the beach was canceled, since none of them had a lot of money to spare. Instead, they elected to hang out around campus, just relaxing. After weeks and weeks of rigorous studying, it was nice to have a break._

_Sakura found herself in Ino's dorm. Both of their boyfriends were playing a game of pick-up basketball with the other guys in the school gym, which was pretty much deserted, given that most students were either visiting their families or out on vacation. Which left them to while away the time watching old movies and painting their nails._

"_Sai wants me to meet his brother," Ino revealed, applying a finishing coat to ruby red nails._

_Sakura never really liked red nail polish. Mostly because at first glance, it looked like someone had dipped their nails in blood. She preferred darker colors, like black, which added a touch of class to her artfully-selected wardrobe. Today, though, she was opting for a plain veneer, and adding French tips with White-Out._

"_That's pretty big," she commented, blowing on the tips to get them to dry faster. "For Sai, anyway. That's like getting you to meet his parents. When are you going?"_

_Ino sighed, laying down on the plush pink area rug, her blonde hair spilling all around her. "I'm not."_

"_Really?"_

"_I'm not serious about Sai. I totally thought he knew that, too. That it was supposed to be, like, something fun. No strings."_

"_I don't think any relationship is no strings," Sakura mused, laying down beside her friend. "There's always one person who has stronger feelings. It's never outright fair."_

"_I know. It was a mistake. I think I got carried away by the idea of us having boyfriends who look like identical twins."_

_Sakura thought of Sasuke, and how eerily similar he and Sai looked, and giggled wistfully._

"_But if I meet his brother and do the whole family thing," Ino went on, "I think I'm just making things worse. Letting things get more and more serious. I don't want to hurt him or anything. He was always good to me. I just…I don't know. Maybe I'm heartless. Maybe I knew the whole time that he liked me more than I liked him, and I didn't care."_

"_You're not heartless, or you wouldn't be having this discussion. You're right though. You should end it soon, before he gets anymore attached."_

_As their polish cooled, they lay on the rug in silence, lost in their own thoughts. There was never enough time during the semester to sit back, relax, and ruminate on important things like feelings. Everything went by so quickly and there was always so much to do. Now that they had time to reflect, though, Sakura shut the rest of the world out and thought about Sasuke._

_They'd been dating now for a few months, and things were rough around the edges, but he made her happy at the end of the day. He wasn't an overly affectionate person in public, but that was good, because neither was she. The sex was amazing, and he treated her well, even if they argued a lot. Overall, she was happy to be with him, and loved him very much._

"_Sai brought up marriage the other day," Ino said. "As if I'd thought that far ahead. It freaked me out, honestly."_

"_So that was it, then. The catalyst to you having to break up with him."_

"_Yeah. It's just way too much, too soon. I'm all for getting married young, but it's got to be with someone I really love. You know? Not just a boyfriend I'm having a good time with. It'd have to be like you and Sasuke."_

"_Sasuke and I aren't getting married," Sakura insisted, blushing at the thought of white dresses and pretty flowers._

"_Yet. You can't tell me you haven't at least thought about it."_

"_Every girl thinks that her relationship is gonna last forever if she's really, really into it. You know the writing's on the wall for you and Sai, so thinking about getting married is out of the question. I'm happy with Sasuke right now. If I didn't think we COULD get married someday, I wouldn't bother with him._

"_But that doesn't mean I'm picking out flowers or anything."_

_Ino giggled. "I have my own wedding planned down to the cake," she said smugly, like it was a contest. "An outdoor wedding. Early spring, flowers in full bloom. A garden wedding."_

"_What kind of cake?" Sakura asked, just to humor her._

"_Red velvet. You know the really awesome kind, like on Cake Boss? With the patterns and shit?"_

"_I can picture it vividly." The sarcasm was not lost on Ino, who merely spared her a withering glare._

"_I'd walk down the aisle to Canon in D, played by a string quartet, on Daddy's arm," Ino continued wistfully. "And you'd be maid of honor, obviously, so I'd hand you my bouquet of red roses and baby's breath when I reached the end of the aisle, and Shikamaru would…"_

"_Shikamaru?" Sakura asked with a gasp. "Hold up. How does he fit into this?"_

_Sakura was rewarded with the very rare sight of a fierce blush on Ino's face. Nothing could embarrass or fluster Ino Yamanaka, who was spunky and fearless in nearly every facet of her life. She clearly hadn't meant to spill a secret like that, but there were certain things you weren't allowed to hide from your best friend, and that was one of them._

"_You're in love with Shikamaru?"_

"_Keep it down!" Ino hissed, even though they were completely alone in her dorm room. The walls at Konoha University WERE notoriously thin, but Sakura still felt she was being overly paranoid. "I didn't say I was in love with him. Just that…I don't know. I guess I always saw myself marrying him."_

"_I don't see him going along with this fairy tale wedding, Ino."_

"_Like he'd have a choice."_

_They both giggled._

"_Come on, I told you my ideal wedding," Ino snapped. "You tell me yours. It's only fair."_

"_I haven't really thought about it," Sakura said honestly, and it was true. She hadn't gone as far as Ino had, planning minor details and designating guests to their respective tables. Maybe it was weird of her, but now that she was all grown up, wedding planning seemed a bit silly._

"_Oh you're such a LIAR. You're dating SASUKE UCHIHA. You can't seriously tell me you haven't thought about getting wifed up to him."_

"_Ino I'm serious. I really don't think that all the little details matter. At least not to me." Her phone vibrated, and she reached into her pocket to check who was calling her. Sasuke's name lit up on the screen, and a dreamy smile lifted her lips as she added, "I don't need the perfect wedding. As long as it's with the person I want to be with forever…that's all I would want."_

* * *

She shook the memory off with a heavy sigh.

Sakura knew she was being a rotten bitch. She'd already let tensions with Sasuke essentially destroy any hope she might have had about rekindling a friendship with him; there was no reason to let her girlfriends suffer the same fate. Not when they'd all gone to such lengths to get her home in the first place.

"Look," she said flatly. "I don't want to talk about Sasuke anymore." And she didn't. There was no sense in beating a dead horse. "It's over and done with and it sucks, but that's the way things turned out. This is Hinata's wedding, and it should be about her. So. Hinata. Where do YOU want your wedding reception? Tell us. And we'll make it happen, cap'n."

Hinata, Ino, and Tenten brightened considerably at that speech, a return to form for capable, confident, go-get-'em Sakura Haruno.

"Um, I kind of like the idea of h-h-having it at the V-Venetian," Hinata said shyly.

The Venetian was a nice hotel on the outskirts of Konoha. They'd had their senior prom there in high school, and Sakura remembered slow dancing with Sasuke; this was before they were dating, but she remembered feeling immortal and helpless all at once, when he'd leaned in and kissed her for the first time. The memory almost brought tears of longing to her eyes, but she was here for Hinata and Naruto, damn it. Not to rehash things that needed to be left in the past, where they belonged. Battling away her emotions, she smiled brightly in support.

"Great idea!" she said happily. "It was beautiful for Prom. It'd be a gorgeous place for a reception. Really big dance floor…not to mention, after all the prom drama, that bitch owner owes me a favor."

"And an open bar!" sang Ino, and they all laughed.

"I'll call them, then," Sakura volunteered. "I'll see if they have an opening. What's the date, Hinata? Did you schedule it with the priest?"

"He gave me fl-flexibility for that whole w-w-week," Hinata replied. "Said he understood N-N-Naruto isn't all that good with d-details, and that we should f-f-find a place for a r-reception. And let him know."

Sakura giggled and pulled out her cell phone. "All right. I'll see if he's open the week of…July 14th, is that it?" At Hinata's nod, she called Collect and had them transfer her to the scheduling manager at the Venetian. While she was waiting, she pointed to Ino. "We'll swing by your parents' flower shop after this. Did you talk to them about giving her a discount?"

Ino's cell phone was out in a flash. "On it!" she sang.

"And Tenten," Sakura added, glancing at her friend, "your Aunt Anko is a bartender, right?"

"Right."

"Maybe she'd lend her services to the wedding, then? So we can save a little money on bartending costs. I know it's pricey to hire the barman at the Venetian for private events. Naruto tried to, for our senior prom. As if that was ever gonna work."

"Good idea, Sakura!" Tenten said excitedly. "Aunt Anko would love to. It could count as her wedding gift. And she can mix shit you've never heard of!" In a few seconds, she was on her cell phone, too.

Hinata just stared in awe at her maid of honor, looking amazed. "You could r-rule the world if you w-w-wanted to," she said.

Sakura smiled because she was supposed to, but inside, she was a hurricane.

Rule the world? She couldn't even rule her own emotions.

Thoughts of dreamy first kisses under the glow of a disco ball, and warm, muscular arms spinning her around a pale hardwood floor, made berth in her mind and absolutely refused to let go.

* * *

"The girls got a venue!" Naruto said excitedly, interrupting the video game session he was currently hosting with Sasuke, Shikamaru, Kiba, and Neji. He stood in front of the TV, earning four identical glares of loathing from the others, but didn't care. "They picked the Venetian. Remember? We had our senior prom there."

He noticed the way Sasuke's shoulders stiffened marginally, and compartmentalized that information for later. He knew he wasn't the only one to remember the historic first kiss of Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno, spinning around the dance floor at their senior prom.

"They got it for a good price, too. Apparently the owner remembers Sakura. Doesn't really wanna cross her, after the whole prom committee shit that happened senior year."

The guys all snickered, even Sasuke; Sakura had been placed in charge of the prom planning committee, and after they'd voted to host the event at the Venetian Hotel, the owner tried to back out a week before the event when a famous band came to town.

Thereby incurring the wrath of Sakura.

In the end, after much debate, screaming, and threatening, Konoha High School had their prom as scheduled, and Akatsuki played the event for free.

And the manager, a young man named Genma, earned himself a lifelong fear of pint-sized Sakura Haruno, which apparently was paying off years later.

"They're negotiating flowers now with Ino's parents," Naruto went on. "They want us to see about a wedding band."

The guys collectively groaned. Naruto, admittedly, didn't really want to spend his first day off in forever hunting down some no-talent band to play their wedding either, but Hinata and the girls were taking care of so much on their own, he had to help out somehow.

"Just have Akatsuki play it," Kiba snickered. "They're probably as afraid of Sakura as the Venetian owner is."

Shikamaru and Neji chuckled at that; Sasuke pointedly looked away. Naruto raised his eyebrows, but decided to let it go. Badgering Sasuke about Sakura too much was going to do more harm than good. Things had to flow naturally between them, even if standing on the sidelines watching them hate each other for no reason was driving him up a wall.

"Where the hell do you even find a wedding band?" Shikamaru muttered. "This is such a drag."

"Can't you just get a DJ or something?" Kiba wanted to know.

Neji fielded that question. "The Hyuuga family would never accept a DJ performing at a wedding reception. It will have to be a band. And a good one."

"Which is lame," Naruto sighed, running a hand through his messy blonde hair. "They don't wanna fork over any money for it, but they still want creative control. All this bureaucratic red tape around my dick, and all I wanted was to wear a fucking orange tuxedo!"

* * *

"Should we have trusted the boys with something as important as a wedding band?" Tenten mused, as they headed downtown to Mitarashi's, the bar her aunt Anko owned. "Maybe we should have given them an easier task. Like…staying in and playing video games, and letting us work our magic."

"On what planet is that fair?" Ino snapped. "We do all the work, and they reap all the benefits? Yeah, no thank you. This is the least they can do, and they have a whole month to make it happen."

"Probably the priciest thing," Sakura said, consulting the notebook she'd stolen from Ino and promptly covered with notes, "is gonna be the wedding gown itself. Father Sarutobi is doing the wedding for free, we got a great deal on the venue for the reception, the Yamanakas are hooking us up with flowers and, hopefully, Tenten's aunt can be our bartender. You could get a wedding dress for real cheap, at a thrift store or department store or just a white dress…but I doubt the esteemed Hyuuga family would let you walk down the aisle in anything less than Vera Wang."

Hinata admired her friends fiercely for their capability. Sakura was back in the city for two days, and in a matter of hours, had taken care of the bulk of the wedding planning. She might not even be needed for the entire month, but like hell was Hinata planning on telling _her_ that. Naruto was right; they needed to keep Sakura around for as long as they could, at whatever cost.

Looking at her, you'd never know that she was experiencing a great deal of emotional turmoil. She looked so in control, so confident in herself, but Hinata knew her very well. No one besides maybe Ino Yamanaka knew all the sketchy details behind her mysterious breakup with Sasuke, but all of them were exposed to the aftermath: tension, animosity, even hostility on both ends. Hinata knew that it couldn't be easy, being back here, and she felt guilty at forcing Sakura's hand.

"You're right," she chimed in. "They w-w-will want all of us dressed n-nicely."

"We'll pay for our own dresses," Ino volunteered. "I'm not saying I can afford Vera Wang, but whatever. As long as you cover yours and Hanabi's, we should be good. Oh, Mom just texted me…wants to know what your colors are, Hinata, so she can plan her arrangements. Did you decide yet?"

"Oh. Um. Naruto wants o-orange…"

"Veto," Sakura, Ino, and Tenten all said in unison.

"I know. I thought…black and wh-white."

"Ooh!" Ino said excitedly. "Classy. Mom can do a lot with that…bold colors, like red, and pink, and…oh, this is gonna be awesome! Black-and-white weddings are the height of sophistication."

"What do YOU know about sophistication?" laughed Tenten, sipping from her macchiato as they walked.

"I read more Vogue than all of you put together," Ino retorted with a sniff. "Black and white is a great idea, Hinata."

"Better than orange anyway," Sakura sighed. "Okay, do you want us to get black dresses, then? What length? What style?"

"We can pl-plan that another d-d-day," Hinata said hastily. She didn't want Sakura to take care of _every single detail_ that day, and risk her friend flying home to Suna until the wedding next month.

"I gotcha. Around your wedding dress. Good idea, boo. We'll find that first, and pick our dresses to match it. Okay, do you want me to make an appointment with the bridal shop, or do you?"

Hinata laughed. "S-Slow down, S-Sakura! You're my fr-friend, not my assistant! I'll t-t-take c-care of it!"

Sakura giggled. "Sorry. If I get out of control, let me know. I'm somewhat of a control freak."

"We know," her friends chorused.

Hinata's cell phone rang. She rummaged around in her purse, expecting to see a text from Naruto; instead, to her surprise, was one from Sasuke.

"Sasuke just t-texted me," she said, flipping her phone open. The others looked surprised, though Sakura tried very hard to hide it. Sasuke almost never texted anyone anymore. "He says…he doesn't have Sakura's new number, but…"

She gasped, and looked up at Sakura.

"But he wants to get a drink with you tonight. Says he has stuff he needs to talk to you about."

Silence fell again. They stood on the sidewalk, each of them warily looking over at Sakura for her reaction. Her face was astonishingly blank, and Hinata regretted opening her mouth in the first place, until she answered.

"All right," she said serenely. "Tell him…I'll meet him at Ichiraku's. Eight o'clock."

* * *

**note..** well, i'm having a really good time writing the story of us right now, but that's no reason to let everything else fall by the wayside. so here's chapter five.

some notes: regarding the akatsuki. i got a few messages from people wanting to know why i never write any akatsuki-based stories. simple. i don't like the akatsuki. not to mention, i couldn't properly characterize them if i tried. so here, i decided to make them a famous rock band just to satisfy some people who were really clamoring for some akatsuki action. they will not be an important part of the story.

none of you have guessed the reason for sakura and sasuke's break-up, though. i wonder if anyone can, so let me know what you think it's gonna be! i love hearing from you guys. keeps me motivated. :)

what'd you think?

xoxo daisy


	6. Everything's Relative

He sat at the bar, leaning on his elbows, a glass of jack in front of him, untouched. Somehow, he sensed that tonight would not be a good night to lose himself to alcohol.

Sasuke mused, as he lit a cigarette instead, that he was doing quite a lot for his best friend, and he really wasn't sure why.

_I never asked for any of this,_ he thought, glaring at the alcohol as if hoping to absorb it through osmosis. _I never asked to be best man and I damn sure didn't ask to go through this again. What am I getting out of this anyway?_

He was trying his best to keep his temper, be on his best behavior, for Naruto's sake. But it was so painfully unfair. Naruto didn't seem to have any compunctions about ruining Sasuke's life. Why was he trying so hard, again?

A sharp inhale on the cigarette made his head fuzzy. He hadn't smoked in over a year and wasn't used to the burning sensation anymore, but it did relax him, which was the goal. Having Sakura around, even when she was out with the girls, just having her _near,_ made him anxious. Agitated. Like she was going to jump out at any given moment and start screaming at him.

He didn't want her to have so much power over him. It was bad enough she'd gone and broken his heart two years ago. She didn't need to come back and take another crack at it.

"You here alone, cutie?" the bartender asked, a young woman with three piercings in her lip. She paused in wiping down the countertops to make eye contact with him.

In a clinical, detached manner, he noted that she was decently attractive. But like pretty much everything else, Sakura had sapped him of his interest in any other woman but her.

"Hn. Waiting for someone." Sasuke exhaled on the cigarette, his fingers twitching towards the jack before he reminded himself he needed to stay sober.

"A girl?"

"Aa." His tone was curt, dismissive, and the bartender seemed to realize she'd struck out.

"Well she's bound to be pretty, if she's got a guy like you so wound up," she said sagely, resuming her counter cleaning with a knowing smile. "The pretty ones are always the hardest to predict." She winked at him and went about her duties with the other customers, leaving Sasuke to fervently agree with her sage advice.

The bar was pretty crowded, which was exactly what Sasuke was aiming for. He and Sakura would be less likely to attack each other if there were witnesses, and conversations were always harder to hear in a room full of people. And what they had to talk about, he didn't want anyone else to hear.

It was five minutes past eight, and he frowned at the clock on the wall, at the group of frat boys gathered nearby to watch the baseball game, at the gaggle of girls trying to send him drinks from the other end of the bar. She was late. What kind of woman kept Sasuke Uchiha waiting like this? Some things never changed; Sakura was shaping up to be not one iota less annoying as a 21-year-old than she'd been as his girlfriend years prior.

Someone dropped onto the stool beside him, and he opened his mouth to tell them to fuck off, only to see that his visitor finally arrived.

"Sorry I'm late," said Sakura, her expression wary, like she expected him to yell at her. "I, uh, got a little turned around on the buses. I guess I didn't remember the schedule as well as I thought I did. It's different, in Suna."

She looked just like the Sakura Haruno from his memories, but with a few minor adjustments. Her hair was longer, her face thinner. She carried herself differently somehow, shoulders back, back straight. As beautiful as ever in a cream-colored dress and brown gladiator sandals, a belt looping around her waist and a denim jacket over top that had him questioning her sanity, because it was hot as hell in early summer.

"It's too hot for that," he muttered, turning back to his drink as she settled in beside him.

"For what?"

"Jacket."

"Oh, no, I'm freezing. I'm used to Suna, remember? It's so hot there that normal hot feels cold to me."

He didn't like that one bit. Resented the hell out of the fact that she was already "used to" a different environment, and the one she should never have left in the first place now felt wrong to her. But he kept his mouth shut, and remembered his reasoning for bringing her here.

"I see I was right!" the female bartender from earlier exclaimed, now leaning over to take Sakura's order. "What'll it be, sweetheart?"

"Oh, vodka tonic, please," Sakura replied with a smile, and when the bartender went to retrieve it for her, she asked him, "What was she right about?"

He shrugged.

A few moments passed in uncomfortable silence while Sakura waited for her drink. She paid for it in cash but didn't drink it right away, instead spun the glass around on the counter, playing with the condensation that gathered on the surface, before she finally asked him, "So, why'd you call me here? I didn't think you'd wanna see me."

That was a loaded question. And Sasuke was good at deflection.

"A truce," he said quietly.

He wasn't looking at her directly, but in his peripheral vision, he noticed the way her legs were swinging above the floor, since she was so short, and her head was turned towards him. Sakura had a really unfortunate habit of making him hyperaware of her presence, demanding his attention without actually knowing she was doing so. That was another thing he hated about her: how much control she had over him without even knowing.

"A truce," she echoed, weighing the word.

"Aa. Till the wedding's over."

"What does that mean?"

Sasuke stubbed out his cigarette in a nearby ashtray, and reached for another one. It would make him lightheaded, he knew, but he needed a distraction. Being so close to Sakura was driving him crazy.

"Like…we don't fight?" Sakura guessed, apparently understanding he wasn't going to go into detail. He never did.

"Aa."

"I guess that's fair," she said. "I came back to help with the wedding. But if you and I are at each other's throats, I might as well have stayed in Suna."

He said nothing, fumbling with his lighter.

"Can I have one?" Sakura asked him innocently.

At that, he turned to look at her, eyebrows raised in surprise even as he slipped one from his pack for her. Sakura Haruno, _smoking?_ It was unheard of. She didn't touch meat, worked out every day, danced for how many years now, did yoga and pilates and all sorts of shit to keep her body insanely tight and fit, but she _smoked?_

His fingers brushed against hers as he passed it over. She blushed prettily, which boosted his ego somehow, and he lit the cigarette for her, eyes locked on the way she inhaled to get it started. The pucker of her lips made his head spin a little; she pulled back and inhaled expertly, clearly thinking.

"So. How do we not fight, Sasuke? It's not like we were ever any good at that. Even at our best."

There was a teasing smile on her face, but it didn't reach her eyes. Sasuke could relate. He felt something heavy in his stomach at her words.

"Do we…avoid each other? Do you just not wanna see me as much as possible? I can hang out with Ino and the others, and you'll only have to be around me at rehearsal and the ceremony and stuff. And I'll be gone right afterwards, so…"

"Naruto said I can't avoid you," Sasuke said slowly, testing the words, ensuring that his desire to see her wouldn't shine through the practiced apathy.

She laughed humorlessly, her hair sliding over one shoulder leaving the side of her neck exposed. "And since when do you listen to Naruto?"

Sasuke smirked.

"Look. Naruto's opinion notwithstanding. Tell me to stay away from you, and I will. I know you must hate me."

Sasuke scoffed. "What do you know."

"Not much, I guess. But don't pretend you were overly happy to see me."

"Hn."

"Seriously, Sasuke. I saw the way you looked at me at the airport. And I get it, okay?"

"Really." His voice was hard, and his first instinct with Sakura Haruno was never harshness, but he couldn't help it. He grabbed the Jack Daniels, throwing caution to the wind, and tossed it back, slamming the empty glass on the counter to be refilled. "You get it."

She must've caught the sarcasm dripping from every word, because her green eyes narrowed. He refused to admit he found the look attractive.

"If you have something you want to say, then say it," she said boldly, challenge written in every inch of her face. He got the sense that she was picking a fight with him at this point, read the feminine ire in her body, and couldn't _believe_ she had the nerve to be anything but completely repentant to him.

He swiveled around in his stool to face her properly, meeting her challenge with blazing eyes.

"You left," he snapped. "Without even a word, so consider yourself grateful I'm even sitting here right now, trying to be civil to you."

Sakura bristled, as he knew she would, but there was no satisfaction in riling her up. Instead, irrational guilt filled his stomach at the way she flinched away from him, but he tamped it down under all of this anger and frustration. How dare she say she 'gets it?'

"You can't honestly expect me to believe you don't know _why_ I left," she hissed.

His jaw nearly dropped. Were it not for the way he was ferociously grinding his teeth together, it would have. Keeping his voice low so as not to attact the attention of the other customers, he snarled, "I had no fucking idea why you left."

"There's no point in telling you anymore," she said nastily. "Considering you fucking hate me anyway, and I don't need to give you another reason to."

"Coward," he accused, as she stood up off the stool, tossed her hair back in a fit of anger.

"I did what I had to do." Her voice was dangerous, every muscle in her body coiled in preparation for what, he couldn't tell. "And I did it for you. So kiss my ass, Sasuke. I'm here for the wedding so you can fucking tolerate my presence or you can't, I couldn't care less. Then after that, I'll get back home to Suna and you can go about the rest of your life without me there to keep ruining things for you!"

She spun on her heel and stormed out of the bar, attracting more than a few curious stares as she did so. Sasuke growled under his breath, tossed more money on the countertop than he meant to, and stalked out right after her.

"Leave me alone, Sasuke!" she yelled over her shoulder, making her way purposefully to the bus stop.

He ignored her, seized her wrist, and wheeled her around to face him.

"What do you mean you did it for me?" he demanded, trying to ignore the way his skin burned at her touch.

"I told you, fuck off!" Sakura snapped, trying to pull away from him, but he was stronger, and held firm. "What's the point in rehashing all this drama? You want to be civil with me? Fine, goddamn it, I'll be civil! But that's all _you'll_ ever get out of me. You want answers, _Sasuke?_ Fine. But not from me. You need someone to tell you what happened two years ago, why don't you ask your _uncle?"_

He was so surprised that he let go of her hand. His uncle?

"Madara?" he guessed. "What does he have to do with this?"

Her eyes shone bright with tears as she pulled her wrist away from him, massaging the skin there as though he'd scalded it. "Everything," she choked out.

The bus pulled up and the door swung open to admit her. Sakura shook her head quickly, wiped her eyes, and faced Sasuke passively, with none of the aggression she'd carried with her all along.

"Forget I said that," she pleaded with him. "Forget I said anything. It was my fault, everything was my fault, so let it stay that way."

She jumped onto the bus and motioned for the driver to quickly close the doors. Sasuke, furious, called out, "Get back here, damn it! What the hell does that _mean?_"

"Let it be my fault," she bit out as the door swung shut between them. "Let it be my fault, Sasuke. Forget what I said."

* * *

_Sakura's favorite spot to study was the quad by her dormitory. Konoha had balmy, comfortable weather most of the year, plenty of sunshine, and plenty of trees under which she could sit while she ran through her biology flashcards._

_It was early evening now. The sun was setting, a coral splash on an endless blue sky, and she made a mental note to grab some dinner at the dining hall when she was done, since it was so close to where she was studying._

"_Good evening, Miss Haruno."_

_She looked up from her studying to find a very tall, very muscular man standing above her. He had long black hair and a familiar-looking face, as though she'd seen him somewhere else, but the features weren't quite right. Handsome and intimidating in an expensive-looking suit, he looked down at her imperiously, the kind of man used to getting his way._

"_Hello," she said cautiously. "Who are…"_

"_I am Madara Uchiha. I am Sasuke's uncle, and his last surviving relative."_

_Sakura stood quickly, feeling messy and unprepared. Sasuke rarely spoke about his uncle, but when he did, it was with a begrudging admiration and respect. She knew parts of the sordid Uchiha family history, enough to know that Madara, Sasuke's high school guardian, was his only living family member._

"_Oh, very nice to meet you!" she said with a sweet smile, hand extended, but he didn't take it. His eyes swept over her offered handshake with something like disgust, and she slowly pulled it back._

"_If you're looking for Sasuke, he's…"_

"_At baseball practice," Madara finished smoothly. "I am aware of my nephew's whereabouts. I sought you out for a reason, Miss Haruno."_

"_Oh. Um, what can I help you with?"_

"_Plenty, if you're so inclined," he replied. "Am I to understand that you have entered into a relationship with my nephew?"_

_She blushed, but figured she had to be honest. "Yes, sir," she answered truthfully. "We've been together for…over a year now. Almost two."_

"_So it would suffice to say that he's quite serious about you?"_

"_As…far as I know…why are you asking me this, Mr. Uchiha?"_

"_Are you familiar, Miss Haruno, with the Uchiha family tragedy?" he deflected her question with one of his own, gaze intimidating as it bore into her own. Without waiting for her answer, he finished, "Probably not, at least not in its entirety. Sasuke is notoriously soft with those he cares for, and would most likely have shielded you from the uglier parts. I won't waste time on the details, allow me to cut to the chase, and let you return to your studying."_

_His lip curled, and he murmured, "It would be in Sasuke's best interest…if you were to call off your relationship. Immediately."_

_Sakura's jaw dropped. "You want…me to break up with Sasuke? But…but why?"_

"_A myriad of reasons," he replied dryly, as though to waste time even clueing her in was beneath him. "First and foremost…your parents, when they were alive, were employed by the Uchiha Group, is that correct?" Again, without waiting for her answer, he continued, "your mother as a legal secretary, your father as a security guard. While I certainly admire your parents' desire to work for the most prolific law firm in Konoha, I feel the need to point out that they were low on the corporate totem pole."_

"_So because of that…because my parents worked for Sasuke's family…you want me to break up with him?"_

"_Think of the sensationalism," he told her condescendingly. "The daughter of two low-income former fringe employees, seducing the company heir? Perhaps in romance novels, Miss Haruno, but not in stark reality."_

"_That never mattered to Sasuke," she pointed out, her tone switching fast from shocked to angry. "If he knew about my parents working for his family, he never cared to tell me. It didn't matter to him, and why should it? This isn't the nineteenth-century."_

"_The Uchiha family, while consisting tragically of just myself and Sasuke nowadays, has always prided itself on maintaining a certain pedigree among its-"_

"_You think I'm not good enough for Sasuke."_

_She couldn't believe what she was hearing. Is that how Sasuke felt, too? That he was slumming it with her? Some poor orphan girl, whose parents used to run files for his parents?_

"_Astute, Miss Haruno. Astute. It is not only that, however. I know, more than anyone, how ambitious my nephew is. His iron-clad focus on his studies will serve to ensure that when the time comes, he will be more than prepared to assume the role his father left for him: that of Head of the Uchiha Group. He will not have time to fritter away with a college girlfriend."_

"_Shouldn't that be Sasuke's choice?" Sakura asked coldly._

"_What makes you so sure it isn't?" Madara demanded, his voice sharp, and Sakura flinched a bit. A smirk twisted his features, ones so similar to his much younger nephew's, but somehow so wrong on his face. Sakura felt sick._

"_Perhaps not now." Madara took a step closer to her, and she froze on the spot, even as he reached out and ran two ice cold fingers along her cheek. "Men like Sasuke, while rare, are not immune to the allure of a beautiful girl. Perhaps at this moment, you're all Sasuke could ever want._

"_And that's what makes you such a threat."_

"_I'm not 'seducing the company heir,'" Sakura snapped, shying away from his touch. "That never mattered to me. I love Sasuke, but not for his money. And he loves me, even though I don't have any. What would he say, if he heard you talking to me like this?"_

_She was confident in Sasuke's feelings for her. He'd proven time and time again, maybe not with words, but certainly with actions, that he cared deeply for her and was happy to be with her._

_That he loved her._

_Almost as much as he loved his family._

_And with that thought, Sakura felt the first few crushing blows of heartache._

"_I assume you aren't going to tell him we ever had this discussion in the first place," Madara said smoothly. "It would grieve Sasuke to know that a family member was attempting to interfere in his relationships, wouldn't it? And as someone who claims to love him, I'm sure the last thing you'd want to do is cause him pain. Especially considering that I AM Sasuke's only living family member._

"_So. Here is what I recommend. End things immediately with Sasuke. Allow him to focus on his studies and his family obligations without any distractions. If you really care about him, as you say you do, you will recognize that his first duty has always been to the Uchiha, and act accordingly."_

"_But…" Sakura scrambled for words, because even though it killed her, Madara had a point. Sasuke had made no secret of the fact that his ambition stemmed from a need to honor his family, and that the Uchiha, even though they were mostly wiped out, was his first priority._

_Even over her. And she'd understood._

_She could tell him, of course. Tell him what Madara was doing. She knew he would be furious; furious enough even to cut off all ties with his uncle._

_And she couldn't let it happen. His uncle was all he had left in the world; she couldn't do that to him. Couldn't deprive him of the last remaining member of his once-esteemed family._

_And Madara knew that._

"_But I love him," she protested weakly._

"_So you say," Madara sneered. "But you distract him from his goals. Weaken his ambition. Like countless women before you, you represent the chink in a man's armor. And Sasuke cannot afford even the slightest weakness. End things peacefully, while you still can; before somebody gets hurt."_

_The threat was subtle, but unmistakable. Sakura gasped a little and took a slight step backwards. Madara's fathomless black eyes were full of menace, and vaguely, Sakura was reminded of anecdotes Sasuke used to tell her, about unfortunate circumstances that befell enemies of the Uchiha Group._

_Is that what she was, now?_

_He didn't need to specify what he would do to her if she didn't comply to his outrageous demand. Everything about him was threatening, intimidating; normally, Sakura wouldn't cow to anyone's orders, especially someone blatantly interfering with her relationship. It would take more than that to tear her and Sasuke apart from one another._

_But Madara was playing on Sasuke's preeminent devotion to his family. And Sakura knew once he'd played that card, the battle was lost._

"_I wish you a pleasant evening, Miss Haruno," Madara said with a genial smile that hid none of his inner menace. "Soon, you will forget about Sasuke and move on, and he will become a great success without the complication of a relationship, and you will be able to enjoy the fact that your sacrifice helped make it happen. Until then…I will be closely monitoring this rather…unhappy situation. I would hate to see that my warnings went unheeded."_

_He inclined his head and left her alone on the quad, staring at the spot he'd just vacated, not knowing what to do and at the same time knowing EXACTLY what to do._

_It would kill her. But under no circumstances could she come between Sasuke and his family. Even at the expense of her own happiness._

_Sasuke would hate her._

_She would hate herself._

_And she knew, in that instant, she couldn't stay._

* * *

Thinking back to that fateful day years later, tears streaming steadily from her eyes as she sat in a hidden corner at the back of the bus, Sakura wondered if she'd made the right choice.

She hadn't meant to spill so much as a droplet of truth to Sasuke, especially concerning his uncle. The whole reason for her sudden split to Suna was so he'd never find out Madara's role in their terrible break-up. In a moment of uncharacteristic weakness, in anger and desperation and hurt, she'd let it slip that Madara was involved, and she hated herself for it.

Even still, she thought, at least before this trip, that Sasuke knew some small iota of what had happened. If anything, she thought Madara himself would have told him eventually; she just didn't want to be the one to do it, if he didn't already know.

But she knew Sasuke very well, even now. Knew when he was lying (never) and when he wasn't (always). There was nothing but frustration in his eyes when he'd accosted her, demanding answers she simply couldn't give him, the frustration one feels when they're deprived of a truth everyone else is privvy to.

She wiped her eyes fiercely as the bus pulled up to her stop, and avoided the other passengers' curious looks as she disembarked. It was a few blocks still to Ino's apartment, and she took advantage of the cool night air to help clear her head.

Some selfish part of her, she had to admit, wanted Sasuke to know the reasons why she'd done what she did. At least, she wanted him to know that she'd loved him passionately, completely, enough to let him go even though it hurt every minute of every day since she'd done so.

But she couldn't do that to him. She couldn't clue him in to the truth about his uncle, his last surviving relative. She couldn't sully his perception of his family, his main motivation for everything he did. It was a secret she would have to keep, no matter what.

Sasuke, she knew, wouldn't let this go. He'd go barging into his uncle's office demanding answers, and Sakura hoped that Madara had his excuses ready to go. If Sasuke came to her looking for the truth, she would deny it. Deny everything, and get the hell back to Suna once this _damn_ wedding was over.

It was the most noble, selfless, honorable thing she'd ever done, heeding Madara's warning and letting go of Sasuke.

And not a day went by when she didn't wish with all her heart she'd done the selfish thing, and stuck around.

* * *

**note..** happy thanksgiving! this, and the new chapter of the story of us, are my way of showing how thankful i am to have all of you! you're wonderful, beautiful people and i appreciate your support so much. :)

so yeah: there's the reason sakura left. you know, and i know, but sasuke doesn't know, so...lots to come, beauties.

xoxo daisy :) what's you think?


	7. Better Left Unsaid

Madara's office was downtown. It was common knowledge the old man worked late, so Sasuke didn't feel the slightest bit guilty storming out of the elevator at 10 pm and hammering loudly on the door. The receptionist had gone home already, and security lightened after six, which meant there was no one to stop him from reaching his destination.

"Enter," Madara's deep voice intoned, and Sasuke waited until he was buzzed in before throwing the door wide open and stalking inside.

Madara barely looked up from his work. Long fingers flashed across an expensive-looking laptop, the light casting his face in shadow.

"Sasuke," he remarked. "What brings you here at such a late hour?"

"What did you tell her?" Sasuke demanded, cutting right to the chase. His head hurt, half from Jack Daniels and half from his argument with Sakura Haruno. He was tired of trying to make sense out of the incomprehensible, tired of trying to play catch-up in a game that seemed to have ended years ago. He was sick to death of people withholding the truth from him, especially when he was so deeply involved with it, his happiness contingent upon knowing what was what. He'd had a headache for two years now, it felt like, and knowing that his own uncle had something to do with the worst break-up in recorded history made him want to kill someone.

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean," his uncle returned smoothly, not even looking up from his laptop. "I smell liquor on you, boy. What have I told you about…"

"What did you tell Sakura?" Sasuke snapped. "Two years ago. She said you were involved."

Madara finally glanced up at his nephew, and his expression was almost lethal. It was the same expression he'd seen his uncle wear right before he'd torn into a professional enemy.

"Did she now," he sighed. "That's most…unfortunate. I was under the impression that our…ah, conversation was meant to stay confidential. It grieves me to know that she felt the need to…"

Sasuke crossed the room in three strides, and had Madara by the collar of his expensive suit jacket, black eyes menacing, temper at an all-time high. Sakura hadn't been lying to him; whatever happened between them two years ago, Madara _was_ involved somehow. He couldn't possibly guess why, but like hell was he going to leave here now without some answers.

"_What. Happened._"

Madara rolled his eyes and in a movement too swift for Sasuke to spot, had wrenched himself free of his nephew's grip. He dusted off his suit and closed his laptop with a hefty sigh.

"We discussed the obvious," he replied coolly, unruffled by Sasuke's temper, which only made him angrier. "And the inevitable. Miss Haruno was kind enough to see things my way, of course. You'll have learned by now that I can be very…persuasive."

"Damn it, what the…"

"You wanted answers from me, did you not?" Madara's voice was cold. "Then shut your mouth and listen. I visited Konoha University several years ago hoping to meet the girl who had charmed you, hoping that you might have selected someone from your social class, someone who could easily one day assimillate into the Uchiha family, a young lady with a proper pedigree and a good family name.

"You can imagine my disappointment when the girl I found was the orphaned daughter of two low-ranking former employees of your parents. Really, Sasuke. You've always had a rebellious streak; I should have known that you would find the girl least-suited to you, to punish me."

Sasuke couldn't believe what he was hearing. How had he never heard? How could Sakura have kept this from him?

Madara had gone to Sakura, decided she wasn't good enough for an Uchiha heir, and somehow gotten her to call off the relationship.

"Before you go flying off the handle," his uncle said dryly, reading Sasuke's furious body language like an open book, "remember that I have only ever acted in your best interest, and in your parents' stead. Were they alive, they would agree that my intervention in your doomed relationship was wise.

"Miss Haruno could have objected, of course, but she saw sense the way you someday will: that she was never meant to be with you, that you were always meant for greater things. And she has found her own success elsewhere, has she not?"

"I never cared about her family," Sasuke spat. His headache was intensifying, his gaze almost red, and all through it all, Madara remained apathetic. "I never cared that she wasn't rich, or from a good name. What the _hell_ would that matter?"

"You should know by now that the Uchiha…"

"The Uchiha are _dead,_" Sasuke snarled. "You and I are all that's left of them and you took away my goddamn…"

"She left, Sasuke." Madara's voice was hard as nails, and the expression on his face was ruthless; he knew he'd played his trump card, and Sasuke had no defense against it. "Blame me all you like, but you're a grown man now, and you should be able to open your eyes to the truth. Regardless of what I said or did, she left you of her own volition. No one held a gun to her head. No one forced her to go."

Sasuke wanted to fight against it, but his uncle had a point he couldn't deny. The choice to leave had, ultimately, been Sakura's. She could just as easily have told Sasuke what Madara confronted her about. He would have taken her side, without a second thought; he would have ended all contact and communication with Madara Uchiha, severed his ties completely with his broken family and moved on, with Sakura by his side.

But she hadn't so much as breathed a word to him about it. Not until two years later, in a moment of distress she'd tried desperately to take back, but the damage was done.

"Look at you now, my boy," Madara said softly, his tone paternal, even proud, as he laid a hand on Sasuke's shoulder. "You've graduated top of your class from college. You'll be attending a first class law school soon and carrying on in your father's footsteps. You're right: you and I are all that remains of our esteemed family, but from the ashes of their tragedy, we shall rise to more glorious heights. And all you have accomplished…all you _will_ accomplish in your family's name…has been done by you and you alone, without her. Without the distraction of a woman, without the _weakness_ of a woman."

Sasuke couldn't wrap his head around this revelation. Couldn't figure out much of anything that was happening, that had happened two years ago, and he _hated_ how far he'd fallen behind. He'd lived his life like a puppet all this time, going through the motions while someone else pulled the strings, and no one, not the uncle he respected, not even the girl he loved, thought him capable of handling the truth. So like a fucking child, he'd lived the last two years in the shadow of their lies, and if there was one thing Sasuke Uchiha hated more than anything else, it was a liar.

His anger with Sakura soared to new heights.

He would have given anything, _everything_ back then for her. Surely she had to have known that? When did he make it unclear? They'd been so fucking _happy_ back then. He thought she knew.

But she'd held out on him. He couldn't forgive that and he damn sure couldn't _forget._

* * *

"Sounds like you guys have everything worked out so far!" Naruto said, laughing. "Guess I underestimated you."

"S-Sakura's been just w-wonderful," Hinata gushed. "And I-Ino, and T-Tenten. It's been so e-e-easy so far!"

It was a warm night as they made their way to the restaurant together, and Hinata loved these moments with her fiancee best. The world raced on and on around them, but it felt like there was nobody else but them. Naruto held her hand in his, his fingers large and rough and warm, and his laughter was infectious. Everything amused him, everything pleased him. He was such an easy person to talk to, to relate to, to get along with, and sometimes, she still had to pinch herself to remind herself that they would be together forever.

It still felt like a dream, one she was too frightened to wake up from.

"I don't see why we couldn't have gone to Ichiraku," Naruto commented, pouting a little, but it lacked any sincerity. "I haven't had ramen in three days, it's starting to get on my nerves."

"The girls w-wanted p-p-pasta," Hinata replied. "And you should b-be grateful th-they're helping us out s-s-so much," she added teasingly.

"I am, I am, I am. Bah. Still, why would you want _pasta_ when you can have _ramen?_ It's pasta, too, in a way, ain't it? Makes no sense how someone could just say _no._"

There was no changing him. She sighed, shook her head, but smiled to herself, because she wouldn't have him any other way.

They made it on time to the Italian bistro a few blocks from their apartment, and looked around to see Sakura waiting for everyone, alone at a table set for eight. She was wearing a little blue dress and her hair was pulled up into a ponytail that looked effortless, and not for the first time, Hinata was deeply, deeply envious of her best friend's careless beauty. Not only was Sakura exceedingly lovely, but she had this bone-deep confidence that you only ever found in people who knew their self-worth. It was a confidence she hoped to feel someday herself, but for now, she would admire it in others.

"H-Hello, S-Sakura," she said with a smile, and Sakura looked up from the menu she'd been perusing to return it.

"Hey!" she said happily, standing to kiss Hinata on the cheek. "You look gorgeous, Hinata, I love that dress! Can I have it?"

"Uh…"

"Hey, Sakura!" Naruto boomed. "Where's my kiss?"

Sakura giggled and blew him one before ushering them to sit down. "I showed up too early like a loser," she confessed. "So I've just been sitting here waiting for someone to come so the other people here wouldn't think I'm this great big dingus with no friends pretending she has friends. I memorized every appetizer, lunch special, and senior citizen's item on the menu. How was your guys' day?"

"Great!" Naruto replied, seizing a menu and cracking it open without any further ado. "Hinata made the tux fitting appointment for me and the guys tomorrow morning. She won't let me get orange, though, for whatever reason."

"Can't imagine why not," Sakura quipped, exchanging a secret smirk with Hinata.

"Our dress f-f-fitting is t-tomorrow as w-well, S-Sakura."

"Oooh, really? I can't wait! I love dresses. When are the others getting here?"

"Asshole's on his way now," Naruto replied, looking at his phone and drafting a confirmation reply to Sasuke. "Seems more pissed than usual."

Hinata glanced at Sakura, who avoided everyone's eyes and took an abnormal interest in her nail beds.

"Neji just left to pick up Tenten from the gym," he went on, reading another message, "and Shikamaru and Ino…"

"Are right here!" sang a voice from behind them, and Hinata turned to see both of them cutting through the restaurant to take a seat at the big table. Ino, who had announced their arrival in typical dramatic fashion, plopped down beside Sakura. "Did I hear something about a dress fitting tomorrow?"

"Y-Yes," Hinata said. "At f-four."

"Which boutique?" Sakura asked interestedly.

"Madame S-Suzume's."

"I literally can't wait," Ino said excitedly, stars in her bright blue eyes. "I look so fucking _good_ in black. Right Shikamaru?"

"Whatever, Ino," he drawled without interest.

"Get your head out of your ass, Hogulous," Sakura snapped. "We're supposed to be helping Hinata find her wedding dress!"

"I didn't say I wasn't excited about _that,_ rudian. Just that I look fucking awesome in black and so I can't wait to find something I look awesome in."

"Oh, whatever," Sakura scoffed, and then she stood. "I have to run to the bathroom real fast, be right back. If the waiter comes, can someone order me a drink?"

"Sure, Forehead. Pick your poison."

"Uh, whatever you get, I don't care. Surprise me, Swine-Flu."

"Sure thing, Mega Skull."

The door opened, a balmy breeze following, and Hinata looked up to see that Sasuke had arrived. His gaze seemed to zero in on Sakura as she crossed the restaurant, and she glanced around to see if anyone else had noticed. But Naruto was poring over the menu, and Ino was arguing loudly with Shikamaru about his less-than-enthusiastic support of her beauty in black; she returned her attention to Sasuke, who moved towards her, his hand touching her shoulder lightly.

Sakura looked up, then flinched away when she saw who it was. Hinata flinched, too. That wasn't the way they were supposed to act around each other. Granted, it had only been a couple of days since Sakura's return, and it would be ridiculous to assume they'd go right back to normal right away, but her heart ached for the pair of them. It was so obvious to Hinata that they were meant for each other, but life had been cruel.

She couldn't make out what they were saying, but Sasuke seemed to be talking very quietly; Sakura, grim-faced, nodded in response, said something in return, and abandoned her trip to the bathroom, returning to the table.

"Sorry to bail, you guys," she said with a sheepish smile that didn't reach her eyes, as she grabbed her purse. "But…"

"Go," Hinata said, sparing her the awkwardness of explaining the inexplicable. Naruto, Shikamaru, and Ino all nodded curtly, and even though probably none of them knew what Sasuke wanted to discuss with Sakura, all of them recognized that it was top priority.

Hinata was not alone in rooting for the two of them to reconcile.

"I'll see you guys tomorrow," she said, expression grateful. "Um…yeah. For the fitting. Just…let me know where to be when, okay?"

"Sure," Ino agreed with a supportive smile. "Go get 'em, Forehead."

Hinata watched Sakura return to Sasuke's side. Neither of them looked happy; instead, there was a grave understanding that passed between them as he cut a swath to the door, Sakura following behind him, until they had left.

She crossed her fingers under the table, wishing with all her might that whatever was about to happen was something good.

Ino caught her eye and nodded subtly, and both girls threw up a silent prayer for their closest friend.

Two years was a long time to have a broken heart.

* * *

The ride to Sasuke's place was completely silent.

They took his car; she tried to fight against the familiar feeling of riding shotgun with the cutest boy in school, but nostalgia won out every single time. She felt eighteen again, the wind in her hair and Sasuke's calming, comforting presence making her immortal, like nothing had changed, except _everything_ had changed, and there was no going back there.

No matter how much she might want to.

Now she was 21, full-grown, her new life in full swing in a country hundreds of miles away. She was here like a wraith, passing through but never staying long enough to cause anymore damage than she already had. Her relationship with Sasuke bitter and acrimonious, a shadow of how happy they'd once been together. And it was all her fault.

Sasuke said not one word to her on the way back. He drove too fast, like he always did, and he kept his eyes glued to the road; she snuck peeks at his face and noted that his jaw was clenched peculiarly tight, but beyond that, his expression was indecipherable. He was a fortress, and she hated that he felt the need to protect himself so securely against _her._

_I never meant to hurt you,_ she thought, full of regret, tears burning in her eyes as she kept her gaze on the Konoha scenery rushing by her out the window. _I left so I wouldn't cause you anymore pain. I didn't want to take your family away from you again, Sasuke. Please tell me you understand!_

How could something have seemed _so right_ at the time hurt so _badly?_

She'd done the unselfish thing, hadn't she? Broken it off with the boy she loved to her core. Left so they wouldn't torture each other anymore with thoughts of 'what could have been' if things were different. Restarted in a new place with all new people just to give them both a chance at moving on. It was her that Madara had threatened, wasn't it? And she'd allowed herself to be played and manipulated, all for the chance to give Sasuke the illusion of the family he wanted so badly.

So why was she still being punished for it, all these months later?

She barely noticed Sasuke's car pull into a parking lot until he'd stopped, and gotten out. Remembering where she was, she was quick to follow as he led her to a tall brick building, an apartment complex she recognized.

Still, he was silent as he moved purposefully inside, through the locked doors, up three staircases, before leading her inside his apartment.

He must have just moved in days ago, she reasoned, looking around surreptitiously, like he'd yell at her if she was too obvious in her inspection. There were still boxes that had yet to be unpacked in the sparsely-furnished rooms, and the place had a stale, unlived-in air to it that she knew would evaporate once Sasuke had been there for awhile. He had this unbelievable warmth to him, a warmth you'd never expect to find in him, that made every place he visited feel like home, as long as he was there. The thought filled her with such a long-dormant longing that she wanted to cry.

Instead, she waited until Sasuke took a seat on one of the two wooden chairs in the kitchen, and the expectant look on his face gave her permission to take the available one.

Predictably, she was the one to break the silence. She always was.

"Why'd you bring me here, Sasuke?" she asked quietly.

He regarded her carefully for a few moments, and she got the sense that he was trying very, very hard to control himself. There was a thinly-veiled aura of fierce rage brewing behind his beautiful black eyes, but instead of unleashing it on her as he'd done two nights before at Ichiraku, he seemed to be attempting to tamp it down.

"I talked to my uncle," he replied stiffly.

Sakura's stomach flipped in anxiety. That was _bad, _that was _very bad news._ A thrill of fear coursed through her as she recalled Madara's barely-concealed threat all those years ago, but it was overshadowed by her dread. Dread that Madara had revealed to Sasuke exactly what she had been trying to hide from him: the tragic truth about his one surviving family member.

"You did."

"He told me he talked to you. Back when we…"

"Yeah. He did. But it really wasn't anything serious. Just…you know. Typical overprotective family member thing, didn't want you…slumming it with…girls like me." Sakura made a valiant stab for lighthearted humor, but she couldn't battle the sadness in her voice.

Sasuke paused, his deep frown unsettling and attractive all at once. He was so intense in everything he did, and it made a familiar heat steal through her stomach at the look of concentration on his handsome face. She bit her lip.

"I…didn't think he…would go that far," Sasuke said carefully.

"Sasuke it's fine. It's in the past, isn't it? Can't we just leave it there?"

"If he made you feel like you had to leave…like it was what I wanted…"

_God, Sasuke, don't! Please don't do this, please don't tell me you wanted me to stay. Please don't tell me what I want to hear!_

"It was my choice," Sakura said, weighing words herself. "To leave, I mean. And I don't…I don't regret it." Lies, lies, lies, but this was necessary. To protect Sasuke from the truth about the family he so respected, and to protect herself, she needed him to believe that Madara was but a minor influence in her decision to move away. "You did well without me. I knew you would. I would only have dragged you down, so…"

"You didn't tell me anything," Sasuke said, anger seeping into his voice, black eyes full of _something_ she couldn't identify. "You never told me he came to talk to you. You never told me why you were leaving. I deserved to know."

Sakura stood up abruptly, before she could stop herself, and moved directly in front of Sasuke. She placed her hands on his shoulders, absently swooning at how hard and muscular they were, before remembering her mission and staring hard into his eyes.

"You did," she agreed. "And I would tell you I'm sorry if I thought it would fix anything, but it won't, so I won't waste my words or anymore of your time."

"Sakura…"

"Leaving you," she whispered, "was the hardest thing I've ever done. But your uncle was right. He's only ever looked out for you, Sasuke. He was right to…to tell me what he told me. I don't hold it against him."

More lies. More of them, spilling out of her mouth, and Sasuke…didn't he deserve to know the truth?

Tears filled her eyes, and Sasuke read her like a book.

"There's something you're not telling me," he said sharply, accusingly, and he stood up, too, towering over her (when did he get so tall?!). His fingers wrapped like snakes around her biceps, and he shook her lightly. "Damn it, Sakura, two years of fucking lies and silence…what aren't you saying?"

He was so close now. Too close. Sakura couldn't do it. She couldn't take his family away again; her reasoning from two years ago returned full force, because Sasuke deserved _better_ than the truth. He deserved the lie. He deserved the illusion that his uncle cared about his wellbeing, that he had family in the world that was looking out for him, rather than looking to control him. Who was she to take that away from him?

"Sasuke I'm so, so sorry," she whispered. Quickly, before he could shake her off, she wrapped her arms around his neck, resting her head on his collarbone. He stiffened under her touch, but he didn't push her away; if anything, judging by the way he trembled as she held him, it felt like he was fighting against his urge to hold her, too. Tears spilled from her eyes, soaking his T-shirt, but still he didn't move.

"I never wanted to hurt you," she promised, and it was true. The truest thing she'd ever said to anyone. She held him tighter, drowning in his warmth and scent and presence. "I…I did it because I loved you, Sasuke, please believe that. And I know you hate me, I know you won't forgive me, but…"

He was too close now. Way too close. His eyes met hers, then drifted to her lips and back up again. She knew what it meant, she knew what his hands sliding from her biceps to her waist meant. She registered the change in the scorching atmosphere between them, the subtle shift that heralded a moment of fierce connection, and was as powerless as ever to fight it.

"I'm so sorry, Sasuke," she whispered.

"Don't give me that," he hissed furiously, and in direct contrast to his wild words, he pressed a harsh but chaste kiss to her lips. Her heart almost exploded, her body was on fire, and subconsciously, she pressed closer to him, wanting to melt into his skin. "Don't give me that shit, you fucking liar." Another quick kiss, like a brand. "_For two years you lied to me._"

"Please, just…"

His grip on her waist tightened, almost bruising, but she didn't notice. Her head swam, drunk with his presence and terrified of him also, as in love with him as she had ever been but petrified by the depths of her own feelings. She would do anything for him, even now, even at the expense of her own happiness. And what the hell kind of connection was that, anyway? It wasn't fair. It wasn't _fair._

And God, she loved him. Loved him still, loved the way he kissed her again, this time longer. His mouth moved insistently against hers, almost begging her to reciprocate; it wasn't a loving kiss shared beneath the blankets of his dorm room bed. It wasn't a sweet kiss stolen as they passed on the quad. It was harsh, it was almost violent, it was raw and a punishment and _I still love you_ and _I'm sorry_ and _I hate you_ and _everything else_ she couldn't say to him.

The sun set outside, and as Sasuke drew back to stare into her eyes, she couldn't tell if it was a beginning or an ending.

* * *

**note..** nowhere near finished with this :) if you guys know anything about my stories, it's that kissing doesn't fix every problem. in fact, more often than not, it _causes_ problems. and i can't wait to share what's gonna happen next. don't shoot me, plz.

what did you think? i love hearing from all of you. lovelovelove.

xoxo daisy :)


	8. Unraveling

"Stop," Sakura murmured against his mouth, but his head was spinning, and it was hard to do anything but kiss her. He couldn't control his hands, which stayed locked on her waist like he was trying to keep her from running away. As if he'd ever been any good at that, he mused bitterly, finally pulling back to stare at her.

She looked exactly like she used to when he kissed her, flushed and breathless and a little bit incredulous, like she couldn't believe it was happening. And it wasn't how he intended it to happen, either, but he'd be lying if he said he didn't want _this_ again. This connection to Sakura, this fire, this heat. And nothing was resolved, either, and it was more like revenge than affection, but there was no denying his desire for her.

Desire that increased with every second of labored breathing and heated glares that passed between them.

"Look," she said haltingly, "I…I'm sorry. I shouldn't…I don't know. I'm sorry about that. I'm sorry about _everything._ And I'd tell you more if I could, but I can't, okay? So can we just…"

His anger rose again, but he kept his mouth shut. Whatever she was talking about was causing her a fair amount of distress, and even furious and frustrated with her as he was now, his first, most primal, most basic instinct was to protect her, even from himself. _Especially from himself. _What right did she have to hold out on him? After everything they'd been through?

"Sasuke can we start over? As friends?"

Friends. Such a diluted, lukewarm, distilled version of what they really were. Which was, technically nothing, but to Sasuke, everything. There had been no other girls after Sakura, none before her. He doubted there would ever be another girl to take her place because his heart was iced over, locked away where no one could find it, except the very person he wanted to hide it from. She'd spent four days back in Konoha and already was chipping away at his ice, reclaiming accidentally what had always been hers, and he couldn't give it back to her. But he _was._ There was no stopping it.

But now she wanted to be friends. And it wasn't enough, it would never _be_ enough, but he knew he couldn't live without her anymore. Not when the last two years had passed in a haze, like he was moving sluggishly through fog, going through the motions of a normal life with none of the payoff. What Sakura was offering now, was a connection to her. A way of staying in contact, of staying in confidence, with the girl who took everything with her when she left.

This was something she hadn't given him before. A chance. A connection, however tenuous.

And it wasn't enough, but it would have to be. For right now.

"So much has happened between us," she whispered, and he was jerked out of his thoughts by the presence of her hand on his cheek. He froze at her touch, light and innocent, and her eyes searched his, startlingly green and so, so sad. "And I know I can't change the way things went down. If I could, I'd do it over. I never meant to hurt you…and if you can't forgive me, I understand. But I really…I don't want to leave like last time."

Tears filled her eyes, and Sasuke's frustration peaked.

_Why won't you tell me what's wrong?_ He wondered angrily. _What's so important you can't tell me?_

"I'll go back to Suna," she promised. "And I won't ever come back, if you don't want me to. But I have a month left here, and I'd…I'd really like it if we could try to be, like…friends. The way we were, before."

"We're not the same as we were before," he said quietly, the first he'd spoken in what felt like a long time. He watched her nod slowly, sadly, and his hands, rigid at his sides, itched to touch her, to offer some kind of comfort. She was the one who hurt _him, _so why was his first instinct to comfort _her?_

"I know that. I know we're different people now. I don't know a thing about you anymore." Her smile was far-away, and her fingers drifted into his hair, the touch soothing. "I used to know you, though. And I hope that in all the ways that matter, you're still the same boy I…"

She trailed off, heaved a little sigh, before she pulled back away from him.

"I'll try to make this whole thing as painless for you as possible," she promised softly, reaching for her purse on the kitchen countertop. "Sorry about everything, Sasuke. I really am. You have no idea how much."

With a last sad smile at him, Sakura slung her purse over her shoulder and moved to the front door. When her hand was inches from the doorknob, he found his voice again, and ground out, "Wait."

She paused, looking back at him, and he swallowed hard.

He couldn't let her go right now. Not with all this…this messy state of nonresolution between them. Nothing solved, nothing fixed, but everything complicated by his inability to keep his hands off of her.

"We can…we can try," he managed quietly.

He didn't know what he meant by that, and he didn't know if Sakura could figure it out, either. But he knew that when she left again for Suna, it couldn't be the way she'd left before. Cutting off all contact, without so much as a whisper of her whereabouts. If he had to lose her again, it couldn't be for good.

She seemed closed off to the idea of rekindling their relationship on a romantic level, and he wouldn't push her on it. But he would take what she offered, as meager as it was, as pathetic as that made him, because he simply couldn't function in a world without Sakura Haruno.

The smile that unfolded on her pretty, kiss-swollen lips wasn't the radiant, fearless kind he knew her to be capable of years ago, but it reached her eyes, and it was sincere. His stomach clenched for no good reason, and he released the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

She nodded, softly, sweetly, and then left, but it didn't feel like an ending. Nothing was solved. He was still no closer to figuring out what had _really_ happened two years ago, sensing that Madara was lying to him and Sakura was hanging onto some very valuable information. He didn't know the person she had become, and she didn't know him, either. They were the worst kind of strangers: familiar ones.

But there was a subtle, tenuous promise between them now, one that couldn't possibly be clearly defined. The promise to try, the promise of more.

Sasuke shook his head, and set about unpacking his things into his half-furnished apartment. Sakura's scent was on his skin, in the air, or maybe it was just his heart.

* * *

Ino was nervous as she paced through her apartment. Shikamaru was working the night shift, thankfully; she knew Sakura would be more willing to open up if it was just the two of them, and she desperately wanted to know about her meeting with Sasuke.

Long, manicured nails drummed anxiously on the glass as she stared out the window at the sidewalk. She knew it was wrong to put so much effort into Sakura's situation with Sasuke when they should all be focusing entirely on Hinata and Naruto, but you only ever had one best friend in this world. And Ino had spent the last two years as the sole guardian of Sakura's secrets, and now, they seemed very close to unraveling.

Which could be a good or bad thing. Anything that brought Sakura and Sasuke closer together was all right by her. Like everyone else (except the two idiots themselves), she knew they were ideal for each other, and she missed having everyone all together. With Sakura living in a different city, things always felt off-balance.

But she also knew about the situation with Sasuke's uncle.

Seeing Sakura disembark from the bus and head towards her building, she released an anxious breath and threw open the door before Sakura even knocked. Her friend looked surprised at the hasty greeting, and Ino barked out, "Get in here and spill, Forehead!"

Sakura blinked and obeyed. She looked a little dazed, like she was puzzling out one of life's great mysteries, and allowed Ino to shove her into the living room. When they were both seated on the red sofa, she shook her friend's shoulders and snapped, "Hurry up! What happened? What did you guys talk about? Did you kiss him? Are you back together?"

"Slow down," Sakura said, frowning. She pinched the bridge of her nose. "I've got a killer headache. Can't this wait?"

"You know it can't. You disappear with him out of the blue, you know you're gonna tell me about what happened! So spill!"

Sakura sighed and tugged her hair out of its ponytail, presumably to relieve her headache. She laid her head back against the sofa cushions and kicked off her sandals.

"Look, I don't…I don't really know what's going on between us," she sighed. "We kind of agreed to just…like, try. To be friends again."

Ino knew when she was being held out on.

"Don't even give me that!" she hissed. "Maybe that's true, but I know there's more to it than that. What happened?"

"Jesus, Ino. He kissed me, all right?"

"He did?" Ino squealed, delighted; it appeared that, just as she'd always suspected, Sasuke's attachment to Sakura had not subsided in the least. This was going extraordinarily well. Only four days back, and they'd already kissed? "Oh my God, that's fantastic!"

"No, Ino, it's not," Sakura replied sharply. "It's not fantastic, it's a _disaster._"

"What? Why? Is he garbage at it all of a sudden? Because you used to tell me you'd go weak in the knees every time he kissed you."

"No, not that, you idiot!" Her blush betrayed her, but there was anger in her face, and also panic. "Remember what I told you right before I left? Why I was leaving?"

Ino blinked, frowning as she pondered that, then recognition dawned on her and her eyes widened. "Oh, you mean about his uncle?"

"Yes! Sasuke _can't_ know, under any circumstances, how his uncle's involved. I already blabbed too much, so he suspects something. You have to keep things quiet. You have to promise me you won't tell Sasuke, or these past two years will have meant _nothing._"

Ino was frustrated. Huffing, she blew a thick chunk of blonde bangs out of her eyes and glared at her best friend, fed up with all this secret-keeping. All it was doing was causing Sakura pain, and she couldn't stand it anymore.

"I just don't fucking get you, Forehead! You have a chance to be back with him, back together, for real, and start over back here where we all miss you and love you and where you KNOW you would be nothing but happy. And you're not taking it! You're throwing away _everything_ for him, and for what? So he can live in this fantasy world where his uncle isn't some crazy maniac who wants to control him?"

"That's _exactly right,_" Sakura said harshly, jumping to her feet. She stormed into the kitchen, threw open the fridge door, and seized a bottle of Yuengling. She unscrewed the cap and took a long swig before finishing, "You don't know him like I know him, Ino. You don't. You don't know how it destroyed him when he lost his family. They're all gone except for his uncle. If I told him that Madara was the one who told me to call it off, he'd never forgive him. He'd never let it go, and then he'd really be alone. I can't do that to him. If he thinks Madara is just some strict but loving uncle who only wants what's best for him, then let him think that. I'm fine without him."

"That's bullshit!" Ino exploded, on her feet, too. She didn't want to punch her best friend's lights out, but if it was the only way to get her to see sense, she wasn't about to pass up the opportunity. "Did you forget that his uncle didn't _ask_ you to leave, he _threatened_ you?"

"I already told you, he didn't _technically_ threaten me," Sakura retorted. "It was just like…implied."

"Damn it, Sakura!" It was a mark of the severity of the situation that she was using her friend's given name, instead of some derogatory nickname. Ino only ever called her 'Sakura' when she was really, genuinely upset. "Sasuke _deserves_ to know! He's been a _zombie_ since you left, if you leave him again, it'll destroy him!"

"Don't tell me shit like that, Ino, please don't!" Sakura's anger was fast dissolving into sadness, and tears poured from her eyes in the next second. "I hate this, don't you fucking get it? I want more than anything to come back here! Jesus Christ, I _know_ I could have everything here. I could maybe even have Sasuke again, if he'd ever forgive me. But I _can't._ The last two years will have been for nothing if I come back, because if I stay, he'll find out. I know he'll find out about his uncle. And I can't, I can't fucking take the rest of his family from him. I can't. I won't."

It was one of the saddest things Ino had ever seen, watching Sakura crumple in on herself as she admitted her secret longings aloud. Her shoulders were hunched, and she left the beer half-drunk on the counter to cover her face with her hands. A familiar sisterly instinct overtook the fiery blonde, as she released her anger, crossed the kitchen in two strides, and pulled Sakura into a tight, secure hug.

"You're doing so much for him," she said softly, stroking long pink hair she'd always secretly envied, while Sakura clutched onto her like a small child. "Don't you see that it's because you love him? And he loves you? You guys deserve each other."

"N-No," she sobbed in return, voice muffled by Ino's shirt. "I could…I could n-never deserve h-h-him. But he d-d-deserves _better_ than the tr-truth. Please Ino. Please, as my b-best friend, please d-d-don't tell him about th-this."

Ino bit her lip, and Sakura continued.

"We're g-gonna be friends. Okay? Me and S-Sasuke. We'll be friends and it won't b-be like l-l-last time, I'll come v-v-visit more often, and you guys can come s-s-see me, too. Okay? And he'll move on and I'll move on and it'll be _fine._ But Ino, please."

She felt her resolve weakening as Sakura made these heartfelt pleas, but there was still so much doubt inside her.

"What about his uncle?" she asked firmly. "If he sees that you guys are friends again. What if he tries something?"

Sakura hesitated, then replied, "I don't…I don't really know. I don't know. But I'm not gonna try to get back together with Sasuke. I lost my chance and I know his uncle would just get in the way again. Maybe, if we're just casual friends who live in different cities, he won't feel as threatened by me?"

It sounded weak, like a terribly weak excuse, but Ino didn't have it in her to argue anymore right now, not when Sakura was so upset. Her willingness to isolate herself in Suna all these years, to tear herself away from the happiest relationship she would ever have, and all their friends and everything she ever loved, was proof that her love for Sasuke was stronger than ever.

But with Madara around, they couldn't be together. And Sasuke didn't even know _why._

"Promise me, Ino," Sakura begged. "Promise you'll keep it to yourself? Please!"

Ino was reluctant, but replied diplomatically, "For now, I will. But if things start to get weird…if his uncle shows up again…I can't keep that promise."

"I understand," Sakura whispered gratefully, hugging Ino tighter. "It won't come to that, though."

Ino did not share in her certainty. But it was late, and Sakura was wiped out; there was no sense in continuing the conversation right now, not when she was so worked up. So they stood there in the kitchen, two best friends with a world of knowledge between them, hugging each other in sisterly solidarity.

_I'll keep quiet for now, Forehead. For you. But if anything happens…I'm going right to Sasuke._

* * *

Madara sat in the black leather swivel chair in his office, arms folded, gazing out the window, but his focus wasn't on the beautiful Konoha evening scenery. His gaze was glassy as he contemplated his next move.

Sasuke was onto him, about the situation with that meddlesome little premed student he'd been so taken with two years ago. Not that Madara minded very much; he did not regret his intervention in their puppy love romance. As he'd suspected, without the irritating distraction of a woman, Sasuke had thrived. He'd graduated top of his class and was shuffling off to law school, as his father before him, and every Uchiha for generations.

Now, without the bothersome influence of his idealistic older brother Itachi, Madara could recruit Sasuke into the family business he was largely unaware of:

Double-dealing.

The Uchiha Group met its destruction early. They'd made their money through unsavory methods, fronting as criminal attorneys while running a criminal operation themselves. They struck deals with known criminals to advance their own careers, made allies in the seedy Konoha underbelly, convicted innocent men, exonerated guilty ones, contaminated juries and blackmailed judges. Throughout the years, though, they were softening; Itachi Uchiha, Sasuke's older brother and a very promising young attorney, began to kick up a fuss in protest of his family's double-dealing. Wanted them to go straight.

What was more, he was actually getting through to some of them. Primarily, his father, Fugaku Uchiha, the head of the Group.

Madara remembered a tragic, tragic car accident, and the tragic, tragic deaths of Sasuke's brother and parents. One that nobody could explain. Ruled an accident.

He did not regret that, either.

He couldn't risk the exposure of the Uchiha Group's crimes, and he wasn't about to relinquish their power over Konoha's judicial system. Now, he was the only one left to influence Sasuke, who was cunning, fearless, and perhaps most alluring of all: easily swayed.

It would take some time, of course, but they had all the time in the world. He needed to corral Sasuke, to control him, to force him back into the _real_ family business. Between the two of them, they could dominate not only the courts, but the criminal underground as well. With a pawn like Sasuke under his control, there was nothing they couldn't do.

Madara's decision to separate Sasuke from Sakura was a good one, and one he did not regret, even for the heartache it had caused his nephew. Two years had passed since then, Sasuke's hurt and anger at what had happened fueling his desire to succeed, and his refusal to take up with other women contributed to his slow isolation. There was still the matter of pulling him away from his irritating group of friends, specifically that Naruto Uzumaki, to deal with, but until now, Madara was satisfied that Sasuke's heart was locked tightly away.

But now, it seemed, she had come back to Konoha. It had taken him all day to try and figure out why, before he learned (through a bit of digging) that the Uzumaki brat's wedding was coming up. Miss Haruno had been recruited to help with the planning, hence her presence in Konoha.

It was unacceptable. He couldn't risk her breaking her vow to keep his interference to herself, and if Sasuke found out that he was ultimately responsible for the big breakup, he would be furious. So furious, in fact, he might turn his back on the Uchiha Group altogether, and Madara simply couldn't allow that to happen. He needed his prodigious young nephew as an ally, and the boy was very young and very foolish, but he was also not someone Madara would want to have as an enemy.

His lip curled in distaste, and he drummed his fingers distractedly on the armrest as he considered what to do.

Murder wasn't out of the question, but it seemed a bit premature for that. He didn't know the extent of Sakura's influence over Sasuke all these months later, and it wasn't that having blood on his hands was particularly distasteful, just that he didn't like to leave unnecessary loose ends. Sasuke was smart; he didn't appear to have all the information (which meant the little bitch hadn't blabbed everything just yet), but it would certainly strike him as suspicious, if something tragic were to happen to her immediately after he learned of Madara's involvement (to whatever shallow extent.)

Perhaps she just needed a subtle…reminder of what she'd agreed to two years ago:

To keep that pretty mouth of hers _shut._

He'd see to that.

* * *

**note..** hey, y'all. miss me?

so yeah, this is mostly a transition chapter which nobody ever likes, but transitions are necessary, dawg. yafeelme? got some good shit brewing for you in the coming chapters. and yes, i know this is about hinata and naruto's wedding, but it's primarily a sasuke/sakura story, which is why there's a lot more sasu/saku than naru/hina. but i promise a happy ending: i always do.

some ffnet questions because i do not understand things:

what is OTP?

and why do they call it a lemon? lemons are bitter and awful. and sexytime is neither. they should call sex scenes "red velvet cupcake" or "boxed wine."

let me know what you think, y'all! thanks for all the reviews, they make me write faster :)

xoxo Daisy

Have a good week!


	9. What Dreams May Come

With the stress just building and building and building on her with each passing day, Sakura would be lying if she said she wasn't glad to be at the dress shop helping Hinata in and out of different wedding dresses. Shopping was a nice distraction from the emotional upheaval she was experiencing in Konoha, and _wedding_ shopping was even more exhilarating.

A black-and-white wedding was classy, and very Hyuuga. Sakura didn't think Naruto would go for such a basic color scheme, but he'd been surprisingly compliant all this time. Perhaps out of a desire not to anger Hiashi, Hinata's father, or maybe he was just afraid of the entire bridal party. (The boys were still working on a wedding band; Sakura did not have much faith in them.)

It was impossible not to plan her own wedding in her head as she zipped Hinata into a flowing white mermaid-style gown that was two sizes two small around the chest. Even if she was supposed to be focused on helping the bride, her mind was wandering, her gaze lingering on dresses Hinata wouldn't be able to fit into, dresses that were catered more to a petite girl of small height and bust, more like her…

"Forehead, snap out of it!" Ino said sharply, apparently catching Sakura mid-spaceout. She gave a start and saw her friends all looking at her oddly; she hadn't released the zipper on Hinata's gown.

"Oh, sorry," she said sheepishly. "Long night. What do you think of this one, Hinata?"

"Oh, I like the m-m-mermaid s-style," her friend replied, admiring it from all angles in the three-sided mirror. Ino was still watching Sakura suspiciously; she would need to tread cautiously around her best friend from now on. Ino knew the whole situation concerning her, Sasuke, and Sasuke's uncle, and Sakura desperately needed her to keep her mouth shut. She was picking up on any slight deviation in Sakura's behavior. Sakura couldn't handle the scrutiny.

"I think it's not white enough," Tenten said critically. "Like, it's a good style, but it's kind of off-white. Hinata I think you'd look amazing in something really bright."

"I agree," Sakura said eagerly. "You'd have to let out the bust in that one anyways. I saw one in true white in the back, want me to grab it for you?"

"Sure," Hinata said, smiling gratefully.

"We'll get you out of this one," Tenten laughed. "Go grab it, Sakura. See if they have it in a six."

Sakura took advantage of the opportunity for a few seconds of alone time, and sighed as she thumbed through the wrapped gowns in the back. She hadn't so much as gone on a date with anyone since Sasuke, despite having hundreds of opportunities from interested classmates and coworkers, but being around all this wedding stuff, she found herself daydreaming about what it would be like to be Hinata.

Engaged, and getting married, at such a young age, to the love of her life.

Her heart twisted with envy as she paused on a white strapless gown, satin and lace, light and flowing. Out of curiosity, or maybe just to torture herself, she glanced at the size.

Size 2. Her heart twisted. It would fit her perfectly if she tried it on.

It wasn't even her _wedding_ and she'd found her perfect dress. The thought was almost too painful to bear. Suddenly the last two years away from Sasuke felt like a waste of time. Maybe, if she hadn't left, this would be _her_ day to try on the pretty gowns and plan for the future.

She shook her head sharply, battling back familiar tears of longing. That wouldn't do any good at all, to dwell on what had happened in the past. She and Sasuke were on rocky ground already; they'd decided to start over, as friends, but Sakura wondered if there was just too much history between them for that to be possible. They'd been together in every sense of the word, committed entirely to each other and to a future together, completely and happily in love.

Was there any way on Earth for them to move past that?

Or was the damage done? Writing on the wall?

"There's no harm in trying that on, you know," a knowing voice said from behind, and Sakura jumped, whirling around to find one of the sales associates watching her with a smile on her face.

"Oh, it's not for me," Sakura giggled nervously. She felt guilty, like she'd been caught redhanded stealing something from a grocery store, all for fingering the fabric of a dress she was never going to get to wear. "I'm getting the mermaid style one, for my friend…"

"Try it on," the woman insisted, grinning. "You know you want to. Every girl deserves to feel like a princess, and I'm sure you've got a special fella in your life who'd love to see you all in white."

_You don't know the half of it,_ Sakura thought with a sigh.

"Try it on, Forehead!" Ino yelled from the front of the store. Sakura looked up to see Ino holding three gowns made almost entirely of tulle, completely _not_ Hinata's style, and she realized she was not alone in this greedy desire to feel what it was like to wear a wedding gown.

"First bring the mermaid dress!" Tenten called, already behind one of the scarlet changing curtains with a dress-up gown of her own.

Sakura laughed to herself realizing that every woman, regardless of relationship status, was susceptible to the contagious virus of being a princess bride, and grabbed two dresses from the rack. One, she passed through the changing curtain to the actual bride, and the other she took into an available stall for herself.

"Do you need any help?" an associate called helpfully.

"No, I'm fine!" she called back. "You might want to check on the _actual_ bride, instead of us poseurs!"

"Speak for yourself, Forehead!" Ino sang from the stall next to hers.

Sakura mused, as she stripped herself of her skirt and tank top, kicked off her kitten heels and removed her blue lacy bra, that if there was one person in the world who could will herself into a dream wedding, it would only be Ino Yamanaka.

The dress was relatively easy to get into. Some wedding dresses, she knew, like the ones Hinata was trying to negotiate herself into, were notoriously complicated to maneuver. This one, though, was light and airy, and she sighed in longing as it fit her flawlessly, clinging to her slender curves like it was designed specifically for her.

It was one thing to debate imaginary flower arrangements and a guest list in her head, but seeing herself in the mirror, wearing a dress that seemed to have been tailor-made for her, brought a near-urgency to these wedding daydreams. Suddenly, it was much more clear to picture. Blues and creams would look gorgeous. Lilies, for her dream wedding, and the rain.

"Oh, wow, I love this!" Tenten squealed. "Come on, let's do the big reveal!"

"No, I don't want to," Sakura said immediately, feeling remarkably self-conscious. This was her dream moment, something very private; she didn't want to share this with anyone.

"Not taking no for an answer, Forehead," Ino scoffed. "You can't possibly look worse right now than I do. There IS such a thing as too much tulle."

With that, she plunged her arm behind the curtain of Sakura's changing stall, and before she knew what was happening, she was dragged back out into the open, wide eyes staring at herself in the three-sided mirror.

"Sakura!" Ino exclaimed, using her real name for once. "That's…that's just _unfair._"

"You look absolutely beautiful," Tenten breathed. Sakura blushed furiously and saw that her friend was wearing a short, spunky white dress that seemed to fit her personality, even if it was a bit loose in some places. Tenten always seemed like the kind of girl to have a short wedding dress; knowing she would one day marry into the Hyuuga family, though, Sakura had to wonder how they would tolerate such a deviation from the traditional floor-length princess wedding gown.

"You r-really do," Hinata added, and there was no mistaking the envy in her eyes. The whiter mermaid dress she was wearing fit her better, and Sakura opened her mouth to tell her so, when she saw something in the mirror that stopped her dead in her tracks.

Sasuke had entered the bridal shop, flanked by the guys, met her gaze in the reflection and froze in place.

* * *

This was ridiculous.

It wasn't _fair._

Anger bubbled like molten lava through his veins at the sheer unfairness of it all, as his eyes drank in the dazzling sight of Sakura Haruno in a wedding dress.

It was like something out of his deepest, most private fantasy, something ripped from the shadowy death of his past desires and displayed for him in a cruel taunt of what he could never have. She looked infinitely more beautiful than she had in even his most explicit daydreams, flushed and nervous and every bit the blushing bride-to-be.

It took him a moment to remember that she wasn't getting married, that this was for the idiot's wedding with the stuttering Hyuuga girl, that she and the other girls were just trying on dresses for fun. But he felt no better about it, now that the image of Sakura all in white was burned into his brain.

How much more of this was he expected to take? He was just supposed to stand around and let her dangle in front of him everything he had ever wanted, everything he could never have? All for the sake of his friends, for the sake of rekindling a friendship he wasn't sure could ever really be revived, with a girl he wanted much, much more than simple friendship from?

Furious, with her for taunting him accidentally and with himself for being so affected, he stalked over to one of the plush red seats in the waiting area and sat down, his gaze locked on the carpet. Shikamaru and Neji joined him, while Naruto gawked at Hinata.

"You look so amazing, Hinata!" he cried, moving towards her, but the other girls all shouted in protest and shoved Hinata back into her changing stall.

"What are you doing here, Naruto?" Sakura demanded shrilly.

"It's bad luck to see the bride in her dress before the wedding day!" Ino howled.

Tenten shoved him back towards the other guys, Sasuke not even looking up to see his best friend crumple to the floor.

"Hey!" he whined. "We just wanted to let you know we found the wedding band! Akatsuki's gonna play! Aren't you proud of us?"

"Keep your eyes and your mouth shut until we're changed," Sakura threatened darkly. "Damn it!" With that, she stomped back into her changing stall, and Sasuke released the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

"I never understood that," Shikamaru sighed from the seat beside him. "Why girls obsess over wedding dresses, when they're not even the ones getting married."

"Leave it to Tenten to pick the dress my family would approve of _least,_" Neji grumbled, arms crossed unhappily.

"You're thinking of proposing to Tenten?" Naruto asked eagerly, recovering quickly from his humiliating ejection. "Really?"

"Eventually," Neji said stiffly. "Not that that's public knowledge or anything."

There were so many things to consider in families like the Uchiha and the Hyuuga, so many factors that meant nothing to a normal family, but that were everything to them. Things like keeping up on appearances, and only associating with others in your social circle. Hinata marrying Naruto was surprising enough for an uptight, uppercrust family like the Hyuugas; Neji considering Tenten doubly so. Neither Naruto nor Tenten were from good stock.

Sakura, Sasuke mused, just to torture himself, would have found herself in the same situation one day, if things had worked out between them. Facing the Uchiha tribunal, having to hold up to severe scrutiny because she came from a lower middle class family and was working her way up from the bottom…

_I would've run off with her,_ he thought to himself wistfully, something he'd never told anyone. _If it came down to it. I'd've picked her over all of it._

How was that not enough?

He shook his head to clear his thoughts just as Sakura emerged from behind the curtain, dressed in regular clothes with a scowl on her pretty face.

"As thrilled as I am that you guys did _something_ right," she snapped, and Sasuke was as attracted to her bad attitude as he was rankled by it, "you should know better than to show up unannounced at a bridal fitting. You couldn't have just called us?"

"We didn't think it was that big a deal, Sakura, why are you being so mean?" Naruto whined. Privately, Sasuke wondered if the idiot was even remotely mature enough to handle being married, if he couldn't even have a simply conversation without sounding like a toddler. "We didn't see much anyways. You looked really pretty in your dress, though."

Sakura sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Look, it's been a long day and an even longer night before that." Sasuke pointedly avoided her gaze, knowing their explosive conversation last night had to have contributed to her short fuse right now. "So. Let me get Hinata all squared away so we can focus on finding bridesmaid dresses tomorrow…how about we all head back to Ino's? I'll make dinner."

Sasuke's heart almost ached at the familiar sentiment. She used to cook for him all the time, when they headed back to his house over winter and summer break. She used a ton of crazy herbs and was a real health nut, but everything she made tasted amazing.

"Okay," he mumbled, speaking for the group for once. He looked up to see a tiny smile on her face, and he wondered if she was remembering it, too: sharing baked ziti and garlic bread at his coffee table in the living room, with plastic silverware and a case of cheap boxed wine between them.

What he wouldn't give for just one minute of that back.

* * *

_"Don't touch that!" she laughed. "It's not ready. You'll make yourself sick if you keep picking at it."_

_ Sasuke rolled his eyes but listened to her all the same, abandoning his mission to taste her vegetable stir fry before it was cooked all the way through. Instead, he pressed himself against her as she stirred the ricotta cheese with the sauce, her back flush against his chest, and he was rewarded with her giggle of delight as he kissed her neck from behind her._

_ "You're gonna make me screw this up! Can't you just be patient?"_

_ "You taste better than this will," he promised against her skin, the intoxicating scent of cinnamon and sunshine flooding his nostrils, making him drunk. He licked the shell of her ear and drowned himself in satisfaction at her shuddering gasp, and the way she dropped the spoon._

_ "Tell me that after you try it," she insisted. With that, she turned her head to kiss the corner of his mouth. "Make yourself useful, and set the table. Stop trying to distract the cook. We get two weeks away from the dorms with a working stove, and I'm gonna take advantage of them!"_

_ Sasuke smirked to himself as he obeyed, seizing a packet of unused plastic utensils from an old birthday party, and set them up at the coffee table in the living room. He had a good view of the kitchen from where he worked, and seeing Sakura, hair piled up on top of her head, dressed only in one of his old T-shirts that fell to her mid-thigh, slicing up sausage and peppers and humming as she went, was exhilarating. It was Christmas break, freshman year, and Sakura, family-less the way he was, was spending it with him._

_ It was just the two of them this year, and baked ziti and boxed wine weren't typical Christmas Eve dining fare, but Sasuke hadn't felt this content, this at home, since his family was alive. Just being there with him, Sakura brought a strange, beautiful new energy to a place he used to regard as somewhere he slept, rather than somewhere he lived. It wasn't home, not until she breezed in and commandeered his kitchen._

_ "I hope you appreciate me adding this sausage!" she called from the kitchen. "You know I can't stand meat!"_

_ "Sakura we've been over this. The pig's already dead. It's an insult to his memory not to eat him."_

_ "Don't even start with me, Sasuke! You're lucky it's Christmas!"_

_ He chuckled, something he'd been doing a lot of lately. She made him laugh. She made him _happy._ He didn't know which was more shocking, but smiling no longer felt like something to actually concentrate on. He'd catch himself smiling more often than not in recent days, and knew it was all her fault._

_ "Okay, it's in the oven!" she yelled. "It'll be ready in a half hour, and I need you to get it out when it's done, you know I'm afraid of the heat!"_

_ "Grab the wine, baby," he called back, laughing darkly to himself and tossing a blanket from the sofa onto the floor. "I have a good idea how we can kill 30 minutes…"_

* * *

Eight places were set with plastic utensils around Ino's crappy dining room table that evening. Six people sat in them, hungry and eager and chatting and excited.

And Sakura, reaching into the oven to pull out a baked ziti sprinkled with sausage and peppers, was stopped by Sasuke, wearing two oven mitts and a knowing little smirk.

"You're afraid of the heat," he reminded her softly.

The brilliant, sincere smile that unfolded on her face reminded him more of that first Christmas than the ziti in his hands did. For better or worse, he was right back where he started:

Head over heels in love with a girl who made him happy without even trying.

* * *

**note..** hey, everyone :) had to set up a little backstory there...but i promise some action next chapter. i think you might like it ;)

well i hope so. that's all i can do is hope y'all like this shit.

thanks to everyone who cleared up the whole OTP thing for me. i'm always way off when i try to figure out the words myself.

let me know what you think :)

xoxo daisy.


	10. Broken Hallelujah

It felt like the pieces were falling right back into place, and one week into her stay in Konoha, it was very hard for Sakura to remember that everything had changed.

Her friends, and her hometown, had a sort of soporific effect on her. The more time she spent with them, the more relaxed she became. Even the uncertain threat of Madara was becoming less and less serious to her, and more than once, she found herself forgetting she'd ever left in the first place.

Her life was in Suna now, but her heart was in Konoha. That part, at least, had remained the same.

Not that it mattered, though. When Hinata and Naruto's wedding was over, she had to get back to Suna. She enjoyed it there. She had a lot of friends and she was getting an excellent education, a good job and stability, something a girl like her really needed.

It was just getting harder and harder and harder to feel any kind of enthusiasm for getting back home.

Even her situation with Sasuke, which only a week ago had been so tense they couldn't even look each other in the eye, was improving. It was a very, very gradual shift, because everything she'd ever done with Sasuke had taken a lot of time for them to warm up to one another, but she no longer felt thoroughly despised in his presence. In fact, since their hasty kiss and quiet, tenuous agreement to start over, she was starting to spot more and more things in this new version of Sasuke that reminded her so much of the old one.

He was kind to her, in his quiet, standoffish way. He was thoughtful, remembering things like how she was skittish about reaching into the oven. He smiled more, even though it was never loud and bright like Naruto's, but a smile she recalled from a happier time.

She wished he wouldn't.

It was horrible to admit, but she wished that he wouldn't give her any reasons to stick around in Konoha. It hurt more than she'd been prepared for, this achingly inescapable process of falling right back in love with the boy who still held onto your heart, and knowing she'd have to leave him again made everything worse. There was a time limit, a deadline, to everything they did.

Three weeks, and she'd have to leave him again.

It was impossible to think about it without crying, so she tried to keep herself busy. The wedding plans were taking an incredible amount of her energy, which was good, and it was wonderful spending so much time with her old girlfriends, but since they all had significant others, there was an inevitable amount of time she spent alone.

One week into her stay, she found herself wandering aimlessly through the park near her old house. She couldn't count all the times she'd cut through this shabby little playground on her way home from school; lazily, she retraced old forgotten footsteps past the jungle gym, through the willow trees, and across the bridge over the stream.

_This place hasn't changed a bit,_ she thought with a wistful smile, pausing at the crest of the bridge. The sunshine felt gorgeous on her face, not at all overpowering like the blistering Suna sun, or maybe she was just being overly nostalgic. _Can't say the same for me, though._

Beryl green eyes drifted to her reflection in the water below, and try as she might to reconcile the young woman she was now with the silly little girl she used to be, she couldn't find any similarities besides the candy pink hair color that once caused her so much strife. What a silly, stupid thing to obsess over, but back then, a child on the playground, her bizarre hair color and abnormally large forehead had seemed like insurmountable obstacles. The most important thing in the world was fitting in, back then.

_What I wouldn't give for YOUR problems, little Sakura,_ she thought with a sigh, resting her elbows on the wooden railing to watch the water under the bridge. _And maybe you could take a shot at trying to solve mine._

She missed Konoha. She _loved_ Konoha. The balmy sunshine, the frequent rain. The shoddy, forgotten little playgrounds with the rusty swingset and the creaky monkeybars. The bustling life and constant energy that came with living in a densely-populated city, the feeling of being by yourself but never actually alone. The feeling that something good was _always_ around the corner, no matter where she went.

She missed it here. There was nothing like being home. It satisfied a longing she'd long since learned to suppress, just breathing the warm Konoha air, but it also exacerbated her regret at having left in the first place.

_I let Madara force me out of here,_ she thought sadly, the wind catching in her hair and sending pink bangs fluttering across her eyes. To her horror, she felt tears burn behind her closed eyelids, and she tamped them back down with difficulty. _It's my fault. I didn't have to leave, I could've just _told_ Sasuke what was going on, and he would've…_

Damn it. Sakura derailed that train of thought before it picked up anymore speed. There was no sense in beating a dead horse; she knew _exactly_ what Sasuke would have done, if he'd known back then. He would have cut off all ties with Madara, even if the man was the only living relative he had left, in a family where family was everything. And no matter what happened, Sakura knew she couldn't have done that to Sasuke: she couldn't have taken away his last surviving family member.

_It was the right thing to do,_ she thought firmly. _Sasuke's in law school and he's doing well. I'm doing well in medical school and we both made it without each other. It's not what I wanted, but it's what we both needed. It was the right thing to do._

But not a day went by when she didn't _regret_ doing the right thing. Not one single day.

"You gotta stop wandering off by yourself," a deep voice murmured from behind.

Her eyes snapped open and she whirled around to see the very object of her thoughts, arms folded as he watched her in irritation.

"Sasuke! What're you doing here? I didn't even hear you!"

"Tch. I know you didn't. You're still doing that, aren't you? You go off alone somewhere and don't tell anyone where you're going, then you zone out completely. You need to pay attention, Sakura."

She rolled her eyes, but part of her delighted in the way he still scolded her for her carelessness. Same old overprotective boy she'd loved since the beginning.

"It's _noon,_ Sasuke. And it's the _park._ I'm pretty sure if any masked murderers were out trolling for inattentive little damsels in distress, it wouldn't be at _noon_ in the _park._"

"Smartass," he hissed.

She giggled, then tucked a loose strand of pink hair behind her ear. "Any reason you're here, or just to scare me?"

He didn't answer, instead leaned back on the railing beside her, his gaze far off. She took the moment to look at him, memorize his features. He looked as effortlessly gorgeous as ever, all sharp angles and fine lines, tall and commanding. Messy black hair tossed back and forth in the breeze, and even if his posture was relaxed, there was an intensity in his eyes that hinted that he was ready for anything. She always felt so perfectly _safe_ in his presence, even in a place like Konoha Community Children's Park, and it would be one of the things she'd miss most when she went back to Suna.

"You never told anyone where you were going," he murmured a few moments later, his gaze swiveling back to her face.

"You guys could've called me, you know."

"Tch. I knew where you'd be."

Sakura smiled fondly and looked back out at the water. That didn't surprise her in the slightest.

"Guess I haven't changed as much as I thought I have."

Things were quiet between them, and it felt like old times. Like they were heading home from school, before they were dating, and she used to intentionally brush her fingers against Sasuke's to get a reaction out of him. Wistfully, she wondered how he'd react if she tried that now.

"You _have_ changed," Sasuke said quietly. She looked up at him, surprised to hear him admit something like that, and she wasn't sure how she felt about it. "But…in the ways that matter…"

He met her gaze firmly, steadily, and she felt her breath catch in her throat.

"You stayed the same," he finished.

She didn't know how she was supposed to take that. Should she be glad Sasuke found some commonalities between who she used to be, and who she was now? Or upset, that he was acknowledging how she'd changed?

Before she could ask him to clarify, though, they were interrupted.

"Why, what a surprise!" a low, intimidating voice said with mock politeness. Sakura didn't need to turn around to know who was speaking; that voice haunted her nightmares for the past two years. She froze, eyes wide, and swallowed her heart.

"Madara," Sasuke said coolly.

* * *

There was no mistaking the change in Sakura's demeanor, when his uncle arrived on the scene.

It was like she'd been doused in icy water, one moment serene where she looked out over the water, too beautiful for words, the next hunched in on herself, eyes wide and locked on her feet. She looked _terrified,_ and Sasuke realized he was not only close to solving the puzzle about why she'd left, he was now finding extra pieces.

_What's with her?_ he thought with a frown, studying her timid reaction to Madara Uchiha joining them on the bridge. His gaze snapped to his uncle, who was dressed as immaculately as ever, and smiling benignly.

"What're you doing here?" he asked suspiciously; it was extremely unlike a high-profile trial lawyer to take afternoon walks through a park twenty miles from his office.

"Taking in the air," Madara replied, his tone mild. "What a coincidence, to see you here! And with Miss Haruno, no less. Wonderful to see you again, Miss Haruno."

"You, too," Sakura squeaked out, her voice unusually high-pitched. Sasuke's frown deepened. _What the hell's that about?_

Remembering Sakura's outburst a few days prior, demanding that he speak to Madara if he wanted answers about their sudden break-up, he wondered if there was still something she wasn't telling him. He could understand why she might not like Madara Uchiha – not many people did – but nothing that warranted this kind of irrational fear.

"How have you been, young lady?" Madara asked conversationally, either not picking up on the fact that Sakura was inching her way little by little behind Sasuke, or ignoring it. "Lovelier than ever, I see. Last I heard, you were attending medical school in Suna, is that right?"

_Who would've told him THAT?_ Sasuke wondered.

"Yes," Sakura said softly. "I…I love it. I can't wait to go back."

Her admission sent a spike of resentment coursing through his stomach, and he missed the significant look Madara was shooting her over his shoulder.

"I'm only here for our friends' wedding. Just a few weeks until I go back home."

"I can imagine Konoha might be somewhat…unsatisfying for someone with so much success," he said. "Sasuke here is doing quite well, as I'm sure you've guessed. That fine Uchiha pedigree is certainly coming in handy. He's most lucky to have made it so far, without any…liabilities."

Sasuke felt, _felt_ Sakura flinch behind him, and he didn't need any further explanation as to what _that_ meant. Suddenly furious, he rounded on his uncle.

"If you have something to say, say it," he challenged the older man, gearing up for a fight. If he was insinuating that Sakura had been a _liability…_

"Whatever do you mean?" Madara asked in that mild, patronizing tone Sasuke so reviled. "Well, actually, hold that thought…I'm quite late to a client meeting. But it was lovely to see you two again. A pity your time together will be short-lived."

He said it more like a threat than an observation, but before Sasuke could find out what he meant, his uncle was bidding them both goodbye.

"I'm sure our paths will cross again soon," he said with a smile. "Until next time."

He continued across the bridge, his long hair sweeping behind him, and Sasuke whirled around to face Sakura, who was shaking.

"What the hell's going on?" he demanded.

"What're you talking about?" she asked, but it didn't convince him of anything except her guilt.

"You're _shaking._ Why'd you act like that? What's he talking about, a liability?"

"I have no idea! I've only spoken to him one time in my life, he's _your_ uncle. Why are you getting so mad?"

"I'm not a fucking idiot, Sakura," he snapped. "Stop treating me like one. He didn't just show up here by accident. Why did…"

"It's _nothing!_" she said hastily. "Stop reading into things, Sasuke, there's nothing going on that you don't know about. He was never a fan of you having a girlfriend, he always saw it as a liability. That's all he meant. He's probably just surprised to see me back here after all this time."

"Sakura…"

"I'm surprised I'm back here, too," she admitted softly, and the sudden change in her mood caught him off-guard. "I really did miss this place." Her expression was far away, in a place he couldn't reach her; he felt his frustration cool in the face of her serenity, all his questions vanish someplace unimportant. "It'll hurt, to leave again."

_You don't have to go,_ he thought, wanting more than anything to actually _speak_ the words, rather than think them, rather than feel them with his whole heart. _You can stay. All of your friends are here. This is your home._

_I'm here. Don't go. Don't leave again._

_Stay._

"But of course, I have to!" she giggled, like she was snapping out of a daydream. "Stupid of me to even dwell on it. I love Suna. Suna's amazing." She sounded like she was trying to convince herself of that, more than him. "It'll be good to get back home."

_That's not your home, Sakura. This is. Konoha._

_Stay._

"Anyway, it looks like rain," Sakura said, glancing up at the clouds overtaking the balmy sunshine. "Typical Konoha. You wanna get out of here? I'm starving, let's get lunch."

That sounded sort of nice. They used to eat out at cafes all the time, back when they were seeing each other. There was a neutrality to it, not overly romantic so they wouldn't get uncomfortable, but more intimate than what the average friends might do, a one-on-one kind of scenario. And Sasuke liked the idea of having Sakura all to himself while she was here, knowing they were running on borrowed time.

But the confrontation with Madara made him uneasy.

"Sakura," he said slowly, watching as she tossed her sheet of shiny pink hair over her shoulder in preparation to leave.

"Yeah?"

"You'd tell me, right. If something was bothering you."

She bit her lip.

"Absolutely, Sasuke. But I'm fine, really I am. I promise."

That was good enough; he could at least trust her not to lie to him again, after all they'd been through.

Right?

* * *

It was stupid to continue to hang around Sasuke even more, knowing that Madara was aware of her presence in Konoha. Knowing that she'd been silently forbidden from having anything to do with the eminent lawyer's nephew. Knwoing that she'd been _threatened_ to keep her distance. It was stupid, it was playing with fire.

But Sakura only ever felt completely safe in Sasuke's presence.

At least until midway through the matinee they saw at the old movie theater, when she received a text from an unknown phone number.

"_You were warned."_

* * *

**note..** this story is kind of me poking fun at myself, with the whole hasty right-out-of-college wedding planning shit. since i always thought i was too practical to get married so young. but here i am. 22 and an old married woman. with the best wedding in the history of weddings, yafeel.

anyway.

been kicking around the whole prequel idea for this story. not sure if i'm gonna do it yet. but i understand why y'alls would want a backstory. me, i'm pretty set in my ways and i write what i like to read: i like to read about what comes later, after all the meet-and-fall-in-love junk. but yeah. i do get it. so maybe a prequel. maybe more flashbacks. I MAKE NO PROMISES but know that i hear where you're coming from. if you pick up what i'm putting down.

love you.

xoxo daisy :)


	11. Paranoia

Sometimes, it was patently unfair, having friends as beautiful as the ones she had.

She didn't want to sound ungrateful or petty, but on her wedding day? Would it kill them to look just _slightly_ less like supermodels?

Hinata sighed as she waited for her friends to try on their bridesmaid dresses. Ino, Sakura, and Tenten absolutely refused to agree on _anything,_ so in the end, she'd relented and let them all buy black dresses in various styles; she regretted the free rein she'd given them, though.

They were bound to look amazing in just about everything. And Hinata knew it was a childish thought, but she wanted to be the prettiest one on her wedding day. With just two weeks to go, it was looking more and more like a certainty that her bridesmaids were going to outshine her like they always did, and it just didn't seem fair.

"What do you think of this one, Hinata? Classy enough for your wedding?" Sakura asked, emerging from behind one of the dressing room curtains to anxiously model her latest selection. It was the simplest design in the world, strapless and knee-length, cinching in at her waist. Maybe the cheapest dress in the store. (She looked like a rock star.)

"A-absolutely," she said with a cheerful smile, inwardly miserable; even with her intricate, extravagant white dress, she would stand next to her maid of honor in that slinky little number and look like an overdressed showpony.

Maybe she'd make them all wear burlap sacks. The thought pleased her for an entire second before she dropped her head in her hands and groaned.

They'd probably look gorgeous in burlap sacks, too.

* * *

The text Sakura received – the anonymous one – had frightened her enough to give up this little fantasy role-playing with Sasuke.

They'd fallen back into an easy routine. He didn't resent spending time with her anymore, in fact sought ways to see her of his own volition. And it was the easiest thing in the world to remember all the ways she still loved him whenever he smiled that crooked smile at her. With every passing day, she felt the bitterness of the past fading into something more irrelevant, and _just_ when she relaxed her guard…

Madara interfered again.

Not for the first time, she wondered if she was doing the right thing, keeping Sasuke in the dark about his uncle.

The thought of sullying the reality of his last surviving relative was repugnant. She couldn't do that to him, not when he had no other family and not when his regard for the Uchihas was so high.

But on the other hand, was this somebody Sasuke _should_ be so close to? Sasuke, who was good and kind in his own way, and headstrong and…

What if she was going about this all wrong? What if it was her _duty_ to tell Sasuke that his uncle was an amoral, corrupt, intimidating _thug_ who'd been threatening her for _years_ to keep away from him? What if she was, essentially, condemning Sasuke's future to the custody of a man who'd been trying – and succeeding – to control his every move?

With her inaction, how much damage was she preventing, compared to how much she was _causing?_

She unzipped the slinky black dress and let it fall to the floor of her dressing room, shuddering. She was getting so confused lately; it used to be so easy to identify her own feelings and motives. Everything she'd done had been in Sasuke's best interest, she could swear to that. At least _before._ But now that she was spending so much time with him, letting him fill up her heart the way he used to, how much of her desire to out Madara and come back home was rooted in selfishness?

Was she really considering taking away his _only family_ just so she could come back home?

_Stop it,_ she told herself harshly, hanging the dress again on its hanger and slipping back into her black leather shorts and gray cropped top. _This isn't 'home' anymore. Home is Suna. And enough is enough. You can't be here anymore, it's over._

_It's over._

"I'M GETTING THE HIGH-LOW DRESS!" Ino shouted from the changing room next to hers. "NOBODY ELSE GET IT SINCE IT'S MINE!"

God, she would miss this place. And these wonderful, wonderful people. It would hurt _so much_ to leave them again.

Two weeks, she had left.

With grim, shaking fingers, she pulled out her cell phone and responded to the anonymous text:

"You don't have anything to worry about. When the wedding's over, I'm leaving."

There was no reply, but she hadn't really expected one in the first place.

* * *

"Pass it, asshole!" Naruto shouted, weaving his way out from Sai and Kiba, who were guarding him.

Sasuke dribbled between his legs, smirking at Neji, who was attempting to block his shot (he was lightspeeds faster than any of his friends) and, ignoring Naruto's demand, faked going left before hurling the basketball in an arc over his head.

The chain-link hoop rattled to signify he'd made his shot.

"DAMN IT!" Naruto yelled, not in the least bit happy that Sasuke's two points put them ahead in the game. "I WAS OPEN!"

Pick-up basketball games in the park were a tradition among the boys since they were children, one of the very few they hadn't outgrown. Sasuke was sweating like crazy in the hot summer heat, but even the sky-high temperatures hadn't affected his drive to play. It was a great way to burn off some steam, as well as impress upon everyone why he'd played D1 basketball in college.

It was weird to think of 'college' as something in the past. He'd only ever heard grown-ups well into their thirties say things like, "Back in college…" and now he was thinking it, too. He was 22 now, fresh out of his undergrad program and enrolled in law school, and it was surreal to imagine that he was a grown-up now, too.

Sometimes it didn't feel like it, like when Naruto called him a name for not passing the ball and he flipped him off in response. Sometimes it still felt like that first year of college, when things were still fresh and new and competitive.

Made all the more complicated by Sakura's unexpected return to Konoha. Now that she was home, it was impossible not to lapse into old freshman year habits. Responding to her texts. Looking for her when she ran off. Spending time with her. Her presence was intoxicating, and sometimes he forgot that she had a different home now, hours and hours away from him.

A home that she would be returning to in two short weeks, unless someone or something gave her a reason to stay.

It was getting scarily easy to disregard what happened in the past. Her abrupt departure from Konoha, an unforgivable offense at the time, was starting to look more and more negligible; really, everyone made mistakes, and she was home now, right? That was the important thing.

That was the dangerous thing about Sakura Haruno. Even when he knew he was supposed to be mad at her, she had a way of getting him to lower his defenses, to relax his rigid stance on just about everything.

She remained a steadfast, unyielding exception to his every rule.

And he didn't even _mind._

"Pay attention, bro!" Naruto yelped, as Sai made an easy lay-up. "_You're on D!_"

Sasuke cussed under his breath – here he was, letting her distract his thoughts even during a _basketball_ game – and against his will, he was plunged three years into the past, to another game with the girl who refused to bend to his whims, or even acknowledge that she was supposed to.

_He could still taste vomit in his mouth as he waited with the other starters of Konoha's D1 basketball team for tipoff. No one would know it to look at him, but the six-foot-two point guard had spent the last hour throwing up in nervousness. This was his first college basketball game, and as the only starting freshman on the Konoha team, he had more than enough reason to be anxious._

_Games were televised. Fans showed up by the thousands. And expectations were high for a team like Konoha University, who made it to the Final Four every single year without fail. Placing a freshman in the starting lineup was relatively unheard of, and Sasuke knew he had a lot to prove to back up his talent and competitive drive._

_He'd never been so nervous before in all his life, even if he never let a second of it show on his face._

"_Jump ball," called the referee, and he stood between the two guys chosen to jump for possession: some seven-foot monster from Iwa College and the captain of Konoha's team, a guy named Kotetsu. Then he tossed the basketball in the air between the two._

_Sasuke's anxiety vanished the second the ball was put into play. Kotetsu was shorter than the guy he was jumping against, but he also had a lot more lift; he managed to smack the ball towards his own teammates, directly into Neji Hyuuga's waiting hands._

_Sasuke took off like a shot down the court, his defender hopelessly unable to keep pace with him. His speed was unrivaled back in high school, and his stamina outmatched, except by his best friend Naruto, who was sitting on the bench despising him for making it onto the starter squad._

_Neji passed the ball to him and he tossed it in effortlessly for the first score of the game._

_The fans ERUPTED. A sea of green, white, and gold screamed his name, some of them wearing his jersey already, while the cheerleaders turned cartwheels in approval. He smirked as his nervousness ebbed into nothingness, replaced with gameday intensity._

_He wasn't sure how he found her in the crowd – maybe it was her bright pink hair – but as Iwa took possession of the ball and he found himself on defense, he just happened to glance at the right part of the crowd at the right moment, and there she was. With his number – 17 – painted on her cheek, her hair in pigtails, decked out in shorts and tube socks and his jersey, screaming her support for him._

_He smirked. Prettiest, loudest girl in the crowd, and she was cheering for him._

_(Knowing she was watching, Sasuke scored 26 points in his first college game, and Konoha throunced Iwa 86 to 65. He was a hero from that moment on.)_

_But nothing was as satisfying as what happened later that night._

_Besides sharing a few drunken kisses every now and then since Prom, Sasuke's relationship with Sakura remained murkily platonic. Until that night when they were alone. She'd grabbed his arm and tugged him away from the party, up the stairs from the common room to the third floor, where her dorm was._

_His breath caught in his throat. Exhausted muscles came alive again with adrenaline as he realized her intent. It was hard to misjudge, with the look burning in her eyes._

"_Sakura," he choked, but she merely smiled, unlocked her door, and pulled him inside. When they were finally alone, she didn't waste any time; her arms wound around his neck and she was kissing him passionately. Like her life depended on it._

_Sasuke forgot absolutely everything, from his astounding first college game to his slight intoxication, all the way to his very name. All that mattered in that instant was kissing Sakura, was feeling her skin underneath her T-shirt, was hearing her breathy little sigh in his ear when his tongue found her pulse point._

"_Sakura," he growled, and she giggled, pulling back enough to look up into his eyes, her own full of playful promise._

"_A girl could grow old waiting for you to make the first move," she teased, and she laughed when he all but threw her onto her bed, not far behind._

…

Sasuke couldn't name the date when they made their relationship official – in fact, he couldn't remember ever properly asking her out – but he always sort of pinpointed it as that night. It was cold outside, for Konoha, anyways, and there was a raging party celebrating their victory over Iwa that lasted long into the night, but the real celebration was in Sakura's dorm room. That was the first time he'd slept with her, the night he learned she'd been saving herself for him – even years later, he still took a possessive, masculine pride in knowing that he'd been her first – and for all points and purposes, the first day of their relationship.

So here he was, playing basketball and Sakura was on her way to the park with the rest of the girls. It was impossible not to drown in old memories, impossible not to want to replicate them.

His slow burn for Sakura hadn't cooled over the years, and after kissing her in a fit of anger a few weeks ago, it had only gotten progressively more intense.

And when she arrived with Ino, Hinata, and Tenten, dressed in leather shorts (he _loved_ when she wore leather shorts) and a shirt that showed off her flat stomach, he had to look away from her.

She was leaving again, wasn't she? So getting all worked up over her was a complete waste of time.

"You guys are all gross and sweaty!" Ino shouted from behind the fence, where they all paused to wait for the boys. "C'mon, we're starving! Feed us!"

Sakura giggled, instantly drawing his attention, and he saw that she'd piled her long hair on top of her head in a messy bun, showing off the long, slender column of her neck. Instantly the back of his neck colored as he remembered how sensitive her neck was, how easy it was to get a reaction out of her whenever he kissed it.

_Knock it off, you idiot,_ he thought harshly, joining the others as they headed off the court. _You're friends now. Don't fuck it up, or soon she'll take that away, too._

He didn't like giving one person so much power over his life. He didn't like the way he had to scrape and scrounge for any semblance of attention Sakura was willing to give him, the way he would so readily take whatever (little) she deigned to offer him.

He also didn't like the way he had absolutely no control over it in the first place.

* * *

She was probably just being paranoid.

It wouldn't be the first time.

And granted, with the way Madara kept leaving her subtle hints that she needed to stay away, maybe she was overthinking things.

But at dinner that night, she couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching her.

They were all gathered at the counter at Ichiraku's, knocking back shots and scarfing down fries and having a grand old time. With her maid of honor dress all picked out and paid for, there was very little Sakura had left to do in preparation for the wedding, which meant the next few days could be devoted to relaxing, and enjoying her limited time left in Konoha.

But no sooner had she sat down between Naruto and Sasuke – in her usual seat – did she get that feeling. A sudden hyperawareness of everything and everyone in the crowded room.

"Sakura, you all right?" Ino asked, frowning from further down the row. "You look nervous, why do you keep looking behind you?"

"Oh, me?" she asked stupidly, then remembered that Ino was the only one who knew about Madara. She was sworn to secrecy for the moment, but Sakura couldn't let Ino know anything was wrong, or she'd go right to Sasuke. "Hahaha sorry, I thought I knew that one girl from the softball team, that's all," she lied, a good cover.

Ino seemed to buy it, but Sasuke had always been a little more difficult to fool. When conversation resumed, he leaned closer to murmur, "You _do_ look nervous."

"I do?" she squeaked. "Oh, well I bought my maid of honor dress today but I think I look like a total goober in it, so I'm not really looking forward to wearing it at their wedding, you know?"

"You're jumpy." His tone brooked no argument.

"I am not," she argued, narrowing her eyes. _Leave it alone, you idiot._ "I'm just…gonna run to the bathroom really fast."

Without waiting for another girl to accompany her, she hurried away from the counter, vanishing to the solitude of the ladies' bathroom.

She locked herself in a stall and tried to calm her racing heart.

_Knock it off,_ she scolded herself. _You're acting so fucking suspicious. There's nobody watching you, it's just your overactive imagination. Keep this up, and Ino's gonna shoot her mouth off to Sasuke, and all this will be for nothing._

But she couldn't shake the feeling. There was security here in the women's bathroom, but it wasn't like she could stay in here forever. And now knowing that Madara had his eye on the situation between her and Sasuke, she felt exposed and vulnerable nearly every minute of the day. Maybe it was just her imagination running away on her, but she was _terrified_.

"S-Sakura?" a voice called, and she stiffened, realizing she was not alone in the bathroom anymore. Swallowing a lump of fear in her throat, she called back, "In here, Hinata!"

"Are you o-okay?"

"Yup, I'm fine!" Sakura replied cheerfully, flushing the unused toilet to avoid suspicion, and emerging with a smile on her face. "Lemme just wash my hands."

Hinata didn't look convinced – maybe her abrupt departure from the table was more conspicuous than she thought – but she didn't say anything, just smiled. "The food just c-came," she said. "Let's go."

Sakura followed her friend out of the bathroom, drying her hands on her shorts, and when she took her seat again, she pointedly ignored Sasuke, who was looking her way with narrowed eyes.

If she wanted to get out of this situation, and if she wanted to keep Sasuke in the dark about his uncle, then she needed to hide her emotions better. Letting anyone see how jumpy and anxious she felt was bound to raise a few eyebrows, and Ino was too smart not to put two and two together. For everyone's sake, she had to keep smiling.

The feeling never went away.

* * *

"Tailed her like you told me to, Boss."

"Good. What did you learn."

"She went dress shopping at the Boutique this afternoon, with three of her friends. Including the one who's getting married. Then they met up with your nephew and his friends at the park. They went out for dinner afterwards as a group to Ichiraku, no conspicuous or noteworthy contact between her and Sasuke. She headed back to the blonde girl's apartment after that, and he went home."

"And does she knew you're following her."

"She kept looking over her shoulder…she suspects something."

A twisted, evil smirk. "Excellent."

"Excellent, Boss?"

"I want her to know I'm watching." A deep, dark chuckle. "I warned her to stay away."

* * *

**note..** getting creepyyyyy. but spoiler alert: i always promise a happy ending eventually. i realize i've been gone a little on this one, but i appreciate your continued patience. i do my best but writing is not my only thing. it's not even my favorite hobby! (but there are children reading this so i can't really say what my favorite hobby is. just that i am a newlywed.)

ANYWAY. did you like it? did you miss me? do you hate me? hollaaaa.

love y'all. xoxoxo daisy jane.


	12. Explosion

Sakura was avoiding him again.

She was polite and friendly when she spoke to him, but she never allowed herself to be alone with him again. At group dinners, she sat away from him; whenever they hung out at Ino's or Naruto's, she found ways to occupy herself so she was never forced to converse with him one on one. She made sure to excuse herself from activities if there was the slightest chance she'd end up in his car.

After the progress they'd made – the decision they made, together, to attempt to be friends – Sasuke felt this was unacceptable.

He was aware that he was allowing her to become an obsession, but he knew right down to his core that there was something going on that she wasn't telling him. And the thought that she was still holding out on him after all this time drove him crazy.

_She told me why she left,_ he thought, discreetly watching her flounce around the kitchen with Ino, laughing as they mixed drinks together. _Madara convinced her it was in my best interest if she broke up with me. But that doesn't explain why she left._

_Or how freaked out she was when we ran into him the other day._

"Want one, Sasuke?" Sakura asked suddenly, smiling at him with a margarita in her hand.

"Aa," he said, standing and crossing Ino's living room to accept the drink. He intentionally brushed his fingers against hers to gauge her reaction. Predictably, she flinched and recoiled the second the drink was passed, her cheeks flushed.

His eyes narrowed as she skittered back into the kitchen like nothing had happened.

They were hanging out at Ino's, what with the bad weather outside forcing them inside. Most of the wedding preparations were already taken care of. The dresses had been bought, the tuxedos had been rented, the reception hall had been booked, Tenten's Aunt Anko agreed to bartend for free, and international rock sensation Akatsuki was playing the reception for free. Now with everyone on break from school and work, and very little left in the way of wedding planning, they all had quite a bit of free time with an entire week before the wedding.

Sasuke found himself increasingly desperate to get Sakura alone, the more she attempted to avoid him.

They'd hated each other at first, kissed each other in the heat of the moment, resolved to be friends, hung out a few times as friends, and then, out of nowhere, Sakura was back to treating him like a leper. And he _despised_ it, because he _knew_ something must have happened to make her react like this. Something she didn't want him to know.

_But how do I get her alone to find out?_ He wondered, downing the entire margarita in one swallow and setting the empty glass on the table.

"Hinata," said Neji, his voice cutting across the music playing on Ino's stereo. "It's time to go. We'll be late for dinner."

"Already?" Naruto whined, setting down the Xbox controller and wringing his hands. "Aw, man!"

"Tell me about it," Tenten agreed with a roll of her eyes, as two Hyuugas and their two significant others stood to leave. "They treat dinner like a goddamn debutante's ball. Hinata can I borrow a dress? I'm sure if I showed up there like this," she indicated her T-shirt and shorts combo, "your dad would throw me out on my ass."

"N-No problem," said Hinata with an understanding smile.

"You takin' me out tonight, Shikamaru?" asked Ino with a grin, that brooked no room for refusal.

"Shit," he mumbled. "Guess we're all leavin', then. You guys coming?" he asked, of Sasuke and Sakura, whose plans had yet to be announced.

"Nah, I'm gonna stay in tonight," said Sakura with a wave of her hand. "I'm a little tipsy. Think I'm just gonna watch a movie or something."

_Bingo,_ thought Sasuke. Here was his opportunity. Naruto, Hinata, Neji and Tenten would be at the Hyuuga dinner, which was bound to take hours; Shikamaru and Ino were going on a date, and would likely end up at Shikamaru's for the night. And Sakura wasn't going anywhere.

"Going home," Sasuke said, knowing he couldn't outright say he had no plans to leave; if Sakura knew he was determined to stay and drag some answers out of her, she would have hastily joined Ino and Shikamaru just to avoid him. He stood up, too, shoving his hands in his pockets and joined the exodus leaving Ino's apartment.

"Bye, everyone!" Sakura sang, closing the door behind her.

Sasuke waited while the others filed into their cars and cabs, then immediately reentered the apartment complex. Determined, he stalked back up the stairs he'd just taken down, and opened the door. Unlocked. Typical Sakura.

She wasn't in the living room when he slipped back inside, shutting the door quietly behind him. He listened for a sign of Sakura, and heard the water running in the bathroom.

Remembering her much-adored habit of taking baths while it was raining outside, he smirked. _Got you._

Sure enough, he heard music coming from the bathroom, followed by a soft, luxurious sigh that told him Sakura was in the water and thoroughly enjoying herself. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. He had her exactly where he wanted her.

The possibility of seeing her naked again – the first time in years – wasn't exactly a turnoff either. She'd gotten exponentially more beautiful over the past two years, he had to believe that applied to her killer figure as well.

With soft, purposeful steps, he made his way down the hallway, paused for just a moment outside the bathroom door, then opened it and stepped inside.

"Didja forget something, Pig?" she asked, thinking it was Ino, but when she turned and saw him instead, her eyes went wide and her cheeks turned scarlet. "S-SASUKE?! What are you _doing_ here, I'm taking a _bath!_"

The generous amount of bubbles she'd added to the steaming water concealed her body from view, but just the enticing sight of Sakura with her hair pinned up and her face flushed was enough to send a spike of desire right through his whole body.

"We need to talk," he said flatly. He shut the door behind him and folded his arms to show he wasn't moving, and neither was she.

"I'm _naked!_" she squealed.

"Nothing I haven't seen before," he said shortly. _Or would mind seeing again._

"Sasuke this is crazy, you can't just run in on people taking a bath, go wait in the hallway!"

"Not giving you the chance to run away again," he snapped. "Something's goin' on with you. I want to know what it is."

"This again?" she demanded, looking angry – and a little nervous, which was telling. "Damn it, Sasuke, you're being paranoid! _Nothing's_ going on!"

"You're been avoiding me," he accused, watching guilt flash through her eyes before she reached for her anger again. "Don't try to deny it. What the hell's going on with you?"

"I am _not_ having this conversation right now," she sniffed. "Get out of the bathroom, Sasuke."

She snatched a towel hanging on the rack beside the bathtub and before he could see anything noteworthy, she was standing with the terrycloth wrapped around her, clinging to her soaking wet curves. Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he fought his attraction; right now wasn't the time to ogle her like a horny schoolboy.

"I'm just _stressed,_ okay?" Sakura snapped finally, climbing out of the bathtub. She stalked up to him to glare in his face. "I've got _so much_ waiting on me back at _home,_" and he _hated_ the way she called Suna 'home,' "and my job's been calling me nonstop to get me to come back to work, and I don't have a ton of time before my next med school quarter, and my landlord's complaining that I've been away for so long, and…"

All of these were legitimate reasons that might stress Sakura out; a month away from her job and apartment was bound to take a toll on anyone.

But he knew her better than that.

"That doesn't explain why you won't be alone with me," he murmured, intentionally lowering his voice.

He watched her eyes darken with a familiar desire, and tried not to let that distract him.

"Maybe I'm afraid of _this,_" she hissed, referring to the rapidly-dwindling distance between them.

"Never took you for a coward," Sasuke murmured.

Sakura rested her forehead against Sasuke's collarbone, and his nostrils flooded with her natural floral scent. His hands clenched into fists as he fought the urge to pull her into his arms.

"It's best if we don't do this," she whispered. "It'll make it…it'll make it so much harder, next week."

Sasuke understood 'next week' to mean when she returned to her life in Suna.

One of his hands slipped to the back of her neck, and he felt her pulse quicken. Growling lightly under his breath, he murmured, "It doesn't have to be like that."

"I can't _be_ with you, Sasuke," Sakura said weakly, and he couldn't see her face, but he knew she was crying.

Abruptly, through the haze of lust and determination, Sasuke felt a stab of wild anger.

_No,_ he thought furiously. _I'm not gonna take this shit anymore._

"That's not good enough!" he snarled, and he felt Sakura flinch at the sudden change in his temper. She lifted her head from his chest and looked up at him, teary eyes wide and eyebrows knit in confusion. He didn't blame her; he could count on one hand the number of times he'd raised his voice to her.

His hands dropped to her biceps instead, her skin damp from her interrupted bath, and as smooth and toned as he remembered it.

"I deserve more than that," he snapped.

It was Sakura who closed the distance between them.

* * *

_What have I done?_ Sakura thought, eyes wide in alarm as she took off down the street.

Everything had happened so quickly. She'd gone to take a bath, convinced that she was completely alone, Sasuke had accosted her wanting answers she simply couldn't give, they'd fought…

Followed by an hour of the roughest, wildest, most violent, most _beautiful_ sex she'd ever had.

Everything they couldn't say to each other, they'd communicated with their bodies. She hadn't slept with anyone after leaving Sasuke two years ago and he admitted he hadn't, either; two years of anger and rage and frustration and longing culminated in that complete and utter _surrender_ they'd just engaged in. It was only after he'd made her scream his name and see in new colors that she realized how badly she'd fucked up.

_Madara wants me to stay away from Sasuke,_ she thought, her feet moving quick as lightning on the sidewalk, bathed in the streetlights overhead. _So I avoided him. I made sure if he was with me, someone else was there so there wouldn't be anything for Madara to worry about. I fucking know he's watching me. What was I thinking. What the HELL was I thinking?!_

Easy. She _hadn't_ been thinking. She let the tension boiling between she and Sasuke erupt. She let her heart win out over her head. Knowing how dangerous Sasuke's uncle was, knowing she'd been threatened to keep away from him, she'd gone and slept with him.

The feeling that she was being watched hadn't gone away. Her heart pounded. Her thighs were bruised, the area between them sore; she couldn't even enjoy the endorphins. Catching a glimpse of her reflection in a store window as she hurried past, she spotted none of the afterglow that should have been all over her body.

There was only fear.

It felt like she couldn't breathe.

_I have to get out of here,_ she thought, panicking. Sasuke was coming after her. She'd run out on him the second he'd rolled off of her, pausing only long enough to throw some clothes on. She knew he would catch up to her soon, and that if he did, she wouldn't be able to keep all of her secrets.

_I have to go home,_ she thought firmly. _To Suna. I can't stay here. It's too much. I can't risk this anymore. _

Sasuke didn't know where she lived in Suna. She sincerely hoped the same was true for Madara. She would be safe there. She could come back for Naruto and Hinata's wedding – one day – but there was no need to stay in Konoha until then.

Ino would understand. Ino could cover for her. She needed to get to the airport. Buy a fucking plane ticket and get the hell out of here.

"SAKURA!" she heard from behind, and she let out a cry of terror. It was Sasuke.

_Stay away from me,_ she thought, racing to the street corner, her head whipping left and right to check for cars before she crossed. _Please please PLEASE, Sasuke, you can't know. I can't tell you. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry._

"Sakura wait!" Sasuke shouted. She heard his footsteps pounding on the cement even through the heavy rain. She gritted her teeth and took off across the street. "SAKURA LOOK OUT!"

There was a terrible screech, and Sakura whirled around, eyes wide; a van was speeding towards her, in the street.

_They're not even trying to stop,_ she thought, in numb, hollow dread.

She was too shocked to even move. The van sped towards her, highbeams illuminating her stunned, panicked face; just before she was struck, though, someone threw an arm around her waist from behind and yanked her out of the van's trajectory.

"_Damn it, Sakura!_"

She hit the sidewalk in a crumpled heap, Sasuke crushing her to his body in a desperate protective motion. If it hadn't been for him – if he hadn't seen that van coming, if he hadn't pulled her out of the way…

"_What the hell were you thinking?_" he demanded, sitting up and shaking her. He was soaked with rain, his eyes wild and panicked and desperate. "Sakura you were almost killed! What the hell are you doing?!"

_It was Madara,_ she thought, staring at Sasuke, both of them wet and shaking and breathing hard. _He really…he really meant to kill me._

_I can't. Sasuke please forgive me._

"I'm getting away from _you,_" Sakura said harshly, injecting as much animosity into her voice as she possibly could. She shoved him away from her and jumped to her feet in the same instant.

"From…"

"That's right, asshole!" she screamed, wiping rain and tears from her eyes. "I knew you'd fucking use me again the second I came back here, and you did! You took _advantage_ of me, you _prick._ You got me alone and…"

"_Shut up, Sakura._" Sasuke's voice was full of so much rage, she was astonished he hadn't slapped her right across the face. He stood up, too, his T-shirt clinging to his muscled chest, his fists trembling at his sides. "That's not what happened."

_Hate me, Sasuke. Make this easier for both of us. Hate me like I hate myself._

"I don't love you!" she lied, snarling her words like an animal. "I never did! I should _never_ have come back here. This whole night was a mistake. I'm going _home,_ Sasuke. I _hate_ Konoha. I never want to be here _again._ You can tell Hinata and Naruto I'll be back for their fucking wedding but until then I don't want to see or hear from _any_ of you!"

The look on his face shattered what was left of her heart. There was still so much anger, such a fierce, wild intensity…but underneath that, in the darkness of his eyes, was an agony Sakura could more than understand, because she felt it, too.

_I love you,_ she thought desperately. _I'm sorry you can't know. I'm sorry I came back. I'm sorry for everything._

"Then go," Sasuke said coldly.

Ice settled between them on a warm, rainy summer night. Ice that could sever the tenuous bonds they'd clung to like desperate children over the years. She watched the pain in Sasuke's face morph into something else entirely.

Hatred.

_It's how it has to be,_ she thought, horrified at the reality. _He has to hate me. It's the only way he'll let me go._

"Get the hell out of here," he snapped. "I won't stop you. I never _could,_ and I sure as hell won't try anymore."

Sakura turned her back on him, refusing to let him see how his words – the words she needed to hear, to protect them both – destroyed her.

She knew then, that it was over. Whatever Madara decided to do next, if he spared her or if he had her run down the next morning.

It was all over. He'd won.

She'd never try again.

* * *

**note..** i wrote a sex scene for this jawn, too. doing some polishing and what have you and i'll have it up on my livejournal later on. link's in my profile. (y'alls know MA content is against the rules. i don't care if everyone else is doing it.)

anyway. hope you liked it, i know it's been awhile. if you did, let me know. if not, blog about it somewhere else :)

xoxo daisy :)


	13. Departure

The earliest flight to Suna was at 9:30 am.

Sakura arrived at the airport with nothing but her wallet and a few remaining shreds of dignity at around 5:00, which left her enough time to purchase a ticket, make it through security, and buy some new dry clothes at a kiosk. The wet ones she discarded in a trashcan, unwilling to take them on the plane.

She was good in a crisis. Mechanical in her movements, almost robotic; she could handle herself, and map out her next move with logic and sense. She could shut off her emotions and function to optimal capacity when the situation called for it, but once the action had passed and she had an unwanted amount of free time on her hands, everything came rushing back with startling clarity.

She sat at the counter of a breakfast bar, an untouched cinnamon bagel and a caramel macchiato in front of her, staring blankly out the massive windows at the planes taking off. The sun was coming up, bright and shiny off the glass. A bright, warm, sunny day in Konoha, the kind she already missed.

It would be good to get back to Suna. Being in Konoha for too long was disarming. She was distracted here, lulled into a false sense of security by having all her best friends around her. The balmy weather, the comfortable atmosphere, the rush of the city…

She didn't need that.

There was an untended apartment in Suna that needed her attention. A nursing home full of sweet old people who'd missed her. Another term in medical school just around the bend and plenty to do before it started.

_It'll be good to get back there,_ she thought with a sigh, stirring her macchiato with no intention of actually drinking any.

And it would. There was safety in Suna. Security. Far away from the stressors that made her anxious, that made her worry.

Far away from the hatred in his eyes. The very hatred she'd helped to ignite.

_It's for the best,_ she thought, blinking back tears and taking a sip just for something to do. _If he hates me, he won't come after me. And Madara gets what he wants._

As if her thoughts had summoning powers, the stool next to her was suddenly occupied; she stiffened, choked by his suffocating presence, but unwilling to give him the satisfaction, she kept her eyes on her coffee.

"That's a nasty bruise, Miss Haruno," said Madara Uchiha in his deep, calm, rumbling voice.

He was referring to an angry black-and-blue welt on her arm. Her lip curled as she recognized what he was doing.

"Took a nasty fall," she said coldly. "But you wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"

Madara chuckled from beside her as he ordered a coffee for himself. Her fear was tempered by anger – how dare he just show up here and casually allude to what had happened the night before – and she narrowed her eyes as she finally looked over at him.

She was struck by how much he looked like Sasuke. Much older, of course, with longer hair and far more menace in his expression. Like Sasuke, if he grew up twisted and wrong. And she hated the resemblance.

"I'm getting out of here," she said frostily. "You get what you want. You get Sasuke. Leave me alone."

"It's the right move," Madara replied with a genial nod. "It's what's best for you, and for my nephew."

"Clearly."

Madara chuckled yet again, leaning back comfortably in his stool. "You know, I can see why my nephew was so smitten with you. You have attitude, Miss Haruno. Attitude and spunk. I respect that."

"I have to come back for the rehearsal, and the wedding itself," Sakura said flatly. "Next week."

"I'm afraid that just won't do. You see…"

"It'd be more suspicious if I don't come back," she cut him off. There was no room for negotiation; she had to be present at Naruto and Hinata's wedding. "They'll start to wonder. Ask questions. It's bad enough I left like this. They're not stupid. If you want a clean, easy break of it, I have to be back for the wedding."

"A stern negotiator, I see. You do have a point. But what's to become of you _after_ the happy couple's nuptials?"

"You won't see me again," Sakura promised, voice dead; there was no shaking the memory of Sasuke's hatred roiling like lava in silver-black eyes. She'd rather slit her own wrists than see him look at her like that again. "There's nothing for me here anymore. Let me do this for my friends – be there for them – and then you won't have to worry about me again."

"I'll hold you to that, I'm afraid. If I do see you around here again – around Sasuke again – and I regret to inform you that no mercy will be shown to you by me."

Sakura released a dry, humorless chuckle as she took a sip of her macchiato. "Oh, really. As if you've shown me any mercy thus far."

"You're still alive, aren't you."

Sakura hesitated, then figured with a few minutes to spare before she had to board her plane, it was as good a time as any. And Madara owed her an explanation, if nothing else.

"Just…just tell me why," she said, and to her horror, her voice cracked. Her hands trembled around her coffee cup. "Why are you doing this to us? Why can't you let Sasuke be happy?"

Madara merely shook his head and sighed, polishing off the last of his coffee.

"I'm afraid it's complicated, Miss Haruno. Family politics the likes of which someone like you could not possibly understand. Sasuke is on a fast track to success, and he simply cannot afford the risk of letting a whirlwind romance distract him from his goals."

"I don't buy it," Sakura said shortly. She turned an icy glare on Madara and hoped he was at least a fraction as intimidated by her as she was by him. "Sasuke and I were dating for years. It was hardly whirlwind. If you hadn't gotten involved, we'd probably be engaged by now. Maybe even married." Remembering trying on her dream wedding dress made her sick. "And there are millions of lawyers who have spouses. Sasuke getting involved with a woman in a serious relationship wouldn't detract from his career. So what's the real reason."

Madara opened his mouth to answer, then glanced at his watch and smirked.

"Frankly nowhere near enough time to tell you," he said. "You have a flight to be on in a few minutes, and I'd hate for you to miss it. Now, when you return next week, you are to have no contact alone with Sasuke. And the very second the happy couple takes off for the honeymoon, so do you…for Suna. Is that understood?"

"Perfectly," Sakura said icily.

"I will be keeping my eye on you, Miss Haruno. Any…indiscretions, such as what occurred last night…will not be tolerated. I have spent far too many years cultivating my nephew, and he's the brightest hope of his generation; like hell will I stand idly by and let some flighty, frivolous young woman strip him of his resolve."

"His resolve…or yours?" Sakura narrowed her eyes and didn't bother waiting for a response as she stood, shoving her unfinished breakfast violently away from her. She hopped off the stool and squared her shoulders, knowing that at over a foot taller than she was, there was no way he could be affected by her backbone, but trying all the same. "After all this…Madara you can't touch Sasuke. You can't hurt him. He doesn't know about any of this and I swear he won't find out…just…just take care of him. Please take care of him."

Madara's handsome features twisted into a vicious smirk for the umpteenth time that morning as he too stood, the gesture much more impressive. Smoothing out his pristine business suit and fixing his white gold cufflinks just for show, he replied, "Oh don't worry about that, Miss Haruno. I will."

Praying to God that she was doing the right thing, Sakura turned her back on him and stepped into the hangar.

_Suna, here I come,_ she thought sadly. _Bye, Sasuke._

_I'm so sorry._

* * *

There weren't words in any language to describe his anger.

How dare she. How _dare_ she.

Sasuke somehow made it back to Ino's apartment that night, blinded by rage, heart twisted and ripped open. He wasn't sure why he went there – maybe to dispose of the evidence of their wildfire affair, maybe to set her abandoned belongings on fire, he wasn't sure – just that when he looked around, he was standing in the living room, dripping rainwater on the carpet.

_The shit she accused me of,_ he thought, pacing back and forth, hands in his hair. _Taking advantage of her…using her…_

_Saying she never loved me…_

Sakura hadn't just crossed the line, she'd _incinerated_ it. She'd said the very words to him that he could never tolerate, never forgive, never forget. Words he never thought he would hear from her, least of all twenty minutes after she'd been screaming his name, nails raking down his back, as he moved inside her.

_That fucking bitch,_ he thought, stunned he was thinking such words of Sakura. Not even after she'd left him the first time had he thought of her so crudely. He'd blamed himself then; but this time, this time was all her.

_How could she do that to me?_

At the precise wrong moment, the door flew open, and in stumbled Ino, giggling and drunk. She looked up in surprise and rather than seeing her best friend as she'd expected, instead she laid eyes on a sopping wet, purely pissed Sasuke Uchiha.

"Sasuke," she said, standing up straighter. "What's going on? Why are you so wet? Where's Sakura?"

"You'd have to tell me," he spat.

Ino. Ino had to know what was going on. Sakura kept no secrets from her best friend; the last two years, Ino had zealously guarded Sakura's unknown reasoning for why she did what she did, and Sasuke had been unable to breech that sisterly bond.

Enough. _Enough._

"What are you talking about…she told me she was staying in tonight. She's not here?"

"She said she's going _home,_" he snapped, approaching her, hoping to intimidate. Maybe in her inebriation, she would let something important spill. "Just left. Just like that. I know you fuckin' know why."

"Sasuke I don't, I swear I…" Then, her blue eyes widened, and she looked at him almost panic-stricken. "Wait…she left? Sasuke what did she say?"

"What do you mean? She…"

"_What did she say?_" she demanded, seizing him by the collar of his T-shirt and shaking him, positively demented. "How did it happen? You came here, and…"

"I banged her," Sasuke snapped. "Then she ran away. Nearly got her ass hit by a truck, too. And…"

"Oh my God," Ino moaned, releasing him to run a hand through her sleek blonde hair. "Oh _no._"

"Ino! What the _hell_ is going on? I've had enough of this!"

She burst into tears, covering her face with her hands. "I…I promised I wouldn't tell," she gasped.

"_Tell me what?!_" Sasuke hadn't expected _this_ at all. Ino was plainly terrified by something, which called into question Sakura's bizarre reaction and abrupt flight earlier. "Tell me _what,_ Ino? Goddamn it!"

"…Sasuke she doesn't want you to know," Ino sobbed, throwing herself at him. "But…but you said she almost…she almost got hit by a car?"

"Yeah…"

"Then…then I have to tell you," she whimpered. "I don't have a choice. I know she doesn't want you to know but…but he's getting serious. I don't have a choice, right? But to tell you. You have to know. You have to help her."

"_Who's getting serious?!_" Sasuke demanded, hands tight around Ino's biceps as he shook her.

"Your uncle," Ino moaned, and Sasuke felt the breath drain from his lungs.

_Madara._

* * *

It had only been a couple of weeks, but her apartment already felt musty.

It had a distinctly unlived-in quality to it as she unlocked the door and stepped inside. Maybe, she realized numbly, it always had. Maybe the problem was Sakura had never really, in her heart, accepted Suna as her home.

Maybe she'd always clung onto some subconscious, misguided hope that someday, she would be able to return to Konoha.

_Enough of that,_ she thought firmly, locking the door behind her.

Her place was achingly hot, having foregone the air-conditioning while she was away. Robotically she kicked off her shoes and turned on the air conditioner, letting it cough out dust that had collected in the blades over the last several weeks before chilly air followed.

Suna was so much hotter than Konoha. The humidity alone was almost unbearable; she'd adjusted to it, of course, and she would adjust again, but would her body ever stop craving the balmy warmth of her hometown?

Would Suna ever really feel like home?

_It has to,_ she told herself desperately, laying down on her sofa, too tired to make it to bed. It was early afternoon, but she hadn't slept a wink last night or on the plane.

Hopefully, Ino would realize what had happened, and cover for her to their friends. Sasuke, even, could cover; she hoped she'd been convincing when they'd fought in the rain, telling him she never loved him and she wanted nothing more to do with him. If he just believed her, then it was a believable story.

Two exes going too far with each other, and regretting it? That kind of thing happened all the time. Hopefully, no one would question it.

But God how she would _miss him._

Remembering his hands on her, angry and insistent and _desperate,_ and the way he'd lowered his guard as he kissed her…like a starving man, like a drowning man…

_He missed me,_ she thought, tears welling in her eyes as she curled up into a ball on her beat-up sofa. _He…he had his guard up, the whole time, but last night…last night, he opened up in his own way. And…and I know he loved me. I know it God I know it he probably still did, until I said those…those awful things…_

She cried herself to sleep in the middle of the afternoon, sunshine streaming in through poorly-dusted blinds and the jerky hum of a clunky air conditioner her miserable lullaby.

* * *

It was dark, when the doorbell rang.

Sakura sat up with a start, gasping; she'd dreamt of hate-filled eyes and a desperate man's hands and the screech of tires on a rainy road. The day had escaped her. It was late now, and someone was at the door.

_Probably my landlord,_ she thought dryly, releasing a shuddering sigh as she got to her feet. _Wondering why I haven't been here in weeks. Jesus._

She unlocked the door and prepared herself for an onslaught of questioning from old man Ebizo, then felt her breath catch in her throat. Wide eyes traveled up six feet of sleek muscle, broad shoulders, a finely-cut jaw, before settling on the angriest, most beautiful eyes she'd ever seen.

"We need to talk," said Sasuke.

* * *

**note.. **well i had my wisdom teeth out yesterday and shit am i hurting. it's frankly unacceptable. so yeah i guess i won't hit every sasusaku month prompt. oh well. i'll somehow pick up the pieces and move on with my life.

PHILLIES WIN AGAIN.

xoxo daisy :)


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